ETIOLOGY OF SPLENIC FEVER. 251 



and ascertain whether they did not result from the 

 system of cultivation prevalent in the country. 



M. Delafond arrived in Beauce. One fact struck 

 him namely, that almost all the animals attacked by 

 the disease were young, fine, and vigorous : those, in 

 short, that gave the best promise. Viewing the rich- 

 ness of the soil and the abundance and quality of the 

 crops in conjunction with this observation, Delafond 

 at once elaborated a speculative theory. ' The blood 

 disease,' said he, ' is nothing but an overfulness an 

 excess of blood circulating in the vessels, and especially 

 the predominance in that liquid of red globules. 



Starting from this idea, his one object was, by 

 means of logical deduction, to trace everything to this 

 fundamental error. He analysed the soil, and demon- 

 strated to what extent it was fitted to furnish crops 

 that were rich and abounding in nutritive properties. 

 He analysed the plants. He then complacently re- 

 ferred the richness of blood of the Beauce sheep to 

 the richness in nitrogenous principles of the substances 

 on which they were fed. He examined the lesions of 

 the diseased animals, and concluded that they were 

 the consequence of the blood containing too large 

 a proportion of the organic elements, called globules, 

 fibrine, albumen, and too small a proportion of water. 



' Eeduce the proportion of nutritious elements,' he 

 wrote as his advice to the agriculturists, ' mix roots 

 with all that is too rich in nitrogenous principles, and 



