124 THE CONTAGIOUS TYPHUS 



extend the evil, with the foulest premeditation 

 and the blindest disregard! 



To feel one's self a stranger in a country, 

 and to be able to rejoice at one's connexions 

 with it, and at the same time to be obliged 

 to give publicity to certain truths distasteful to 

 those to whom they are told, is a most painful 

 task. But, as it would be to swerve from 

 that duty and loyalty which the national in- 

 terests as well as those of science impose 

 upon a writer, not to speak out with im- 

 partial justice in a matter of so vital an im- 

 portance, we beg permission to consider, 

 without reserve, this delicate question: the 

 causes which have contributed to propagate 

 the complaint. 



V. 



England, so long spared by that wasting 

 scourge, which had so often extended its ra- 

 vages over France and other kingdoms during 

 the last sixty years, was taken by surprise; 

 and the regulations and laws necessary to 

 stifle without delay the distemper in its focus 

 that is to say, in the metropolis not being 



