OF THE OX. 119 



best thing they could do was to turn their 

 sick beasts to whatever account they could, 

 by driving them to market or to the slaughter- 

 houses, an expedient which they were the 

 more disposed to adopt, inasmuch as the 

 diseased cows had ceased to give milk. And 

 then, the removal of these animals, in various 

 stages of the disorder, became the most rapid 

 means of disseminating the contagion, which, 

 had it been concentrated and pent-up at first 

 within its narrow focus, would otherwise have 

 spread with less fearful havoc.* 



In the meanwhile the sick cows being com- 

 mingled with thousands of heads of cattle ex- 

 posed for sale at the different markets, com- 

 municated far and wide the principle of the 

 disease ; and as a certain number of these 

 animals remaining unsold were driven back to 

 the farms, into stalls until then removed from 

 every cause of contagion, they introduced 

 among their sound companions the fatal germs 

 of the distemper ; and as, again, this effectual 

 means of propagating the evil was repeated 

 several times in the same week, the conse- 

 quence was that, by the end of July a little 



* See Notes G, J. 



