OF THE OX. 209 



matter ; in marshy plains, where the same 

 natural impurities are fostered ; and that these 

 first hotbeds of the evil are found in China, in 

 India, in America, in Africa, as well as on the 

 shores of the Black Sea. A spirit of observa- 

 tion which delights in measuring the phe- 

 nomena of nature with the contracted compass 

 of its own short views and conceptions, could 

 alone have imagined that the ox-typhus was 

 only to be found originally in the steppes of 

 Hungary and Kussia, and that the bovine 

 species of those countries, thanks to a special 

 organization, was alone capable of generating 

 the typhus. 



Since we know, then, in what conditions 

 this disease is developed, and especially in 

 what manner it is propagated in Europe, it 

 is not impossible now, when nations are united 

 by the means of quick and easy communica- 

 tion, by commercial treaties, and by the mutual 

 relations of science, to examine what measures 

 might be taken to modify and control these 

 conditions. A commission formed for this 

 purpose, a scientific congress, would be able to 

 make on the spot a study of all the circum- 



P 



