114 THE CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS 



damp, but renowned for its spacious green 

 fields and meadows, it has suffered more than 

 any other country from these unfavourable con- 

 ditions, and their destructive influence on the 

 grass and corn ; the herds having found a great 

 reduction of food where formerly they met 

 with abundance. Everybody has seen, as we 

 have ourselves, large herds of cattle, wan- 

 dering in amazement from field to field, and 

 seeking for something to browse on a parched 

 and arid soil. A supplementary provision of 

 corn, roots, malt, and the grounds of the beer 

 vat or spirit barrel, no doubt served to mitigate 

 the sad effects of these privations on the health 

 of cattle ; but in spite of all that could be 

 done, their blood became impoverished, their 

 strength and vital resistance sank, and (like 

 the animals which we transferred at will into 

 a soil more favourable to the spread of para- 

 sitic diseases), they afforded last June, as they 

 do now, an unusual predisposition to suffer and 

 transform the morbific principles of typhus, 

 which in all probability they would have been 

 proof against at any other time. We may 

 very fairly infer this much, for we must of 

 necessity believe that the regular importation 



