OF THE OX. 179 



quences on the public health, is it not rather 

 an aggravation than a mitigation of the loss ? 



These last assertions naturally lead us to 

 inquire whether we are not justified in saying 

 that the flesh of sick and tainted cattle, thus 

 circulated and consumed, has not had its 

 baleful effects on the public health. 



The butchers who sold the flesh of these 

 sick and tainted cattle have no doubt been 

 careful to abstain from using it in their own 

 families ; and the first time they speculated on 

 the health of their fellow-citizens, well knowing 

 what they did, their conscience probably re- 

 proached them with the misdemeanour. But 

 afterwards, when no bad consequences to their 

 customers had been seen, their own impunity, 

 joined to this apparent harmlessness to their 

 neighbours, rendered them bolder, and it be- 

 came a daily habit with them to sell this pec- 

 cant offal, which poisons even the earth by its 

 contact. 



Moreover, the graziers themselves were in 

 league with the butchers, and took care to 

 slaughter the affected animals before the 

 wasting of their flesh by the progress of the 

 distemper had bereft them of their greatest 

 N 2 



