OF THE OX. 95 



We have explained already, in the First 

 Part, what alterations organic matter under- 

 goes in general, when accidental causes happen 

 to modify its organic elements ; and we have 

 pointed out the fact, that of all living creatures 

 herbivorous animals were those that offered 

 the least vital resistance to the causes of disease 

 and destruction. 



This unquestionable fact being taken for 

 granted, let us now consider under what con- 

 ditions live the multitudinous herds of horned 

 cattle which in Russia and in South America 

 are reared and supported solely for the produce 

 of their flesh, and sometimes, too, for that of 

 their hides. 



The great breeders and proprietors fix the 

 number of their heads of cattle according and in 

 proportion to the quantity of the pastures, but 

 like other men, they mortgage the future for 

 their benefit without making due allowance 

 for accidents or extreme changes of weather, as 

 when years of unusual drought succeed those 

 of heavy rain ; so that these herds, by the 

 single fact of these extreme fluctuations in the 

 degrees of temperature, are exposed to a mul- 

 tiplicity of causes productive of disease. The 



