OF THE OX. 93 



which afford the conditions of its production, 

 and that this exclusive predisposition as it is 

 called, attributed to the race inhabiting the 

 steppes, is simply a chimera. 



But arguments are seldom exhausted even 

 to defend a bad cause, and it is objected that 

 the fact that all oxen may contract the typhus 

 transmitted by the contact of animals from 

 one to another, does not prove that the ori- 

 ginal predisposition is the same in every race ; 

 and they persist iri maintaining 1st, that 

 the typhus of the steppes is alone able ori- 

 ginally to beget the disease ; 2nd, that having 

 thus begotten and produced it, it becomes, 

 after this organic conception, apt to be trans- 

 mitted to every animal, and fit to be assimi- 

 lated with them. 



To these subtleties and argumentative re- 

 finements it would be as easy for me to oppose 

 abstract reasonings equally strong, as it would 

 have been for the Jansenists and Mollinists, 

 had it so chanced that they had been drawn 

 into a debate on the origin and nature of the 

 virus of the plague which carried off Jansenius. 

 But let us confine ourselves to serious facts 

 and conclude 



