218 
SANGUINEOUS APOPLEXY. 
sect have transported the typhoid virus from a distance, and 
inoculated the man by its sting] Is it not also well known that 
typhus may be spontaneously developed in men who live poorly, 
and are exhausted by labour under a burning sun ] Have not 
shepherds been before attacked with typhus when there was not 
a single case of this disease among their flocks ] We can even 
admit in this hypothesis of the existence of malignant pustules 
in the shepherd, that among the sheep that died one might have 
been found foundered or fatigued, or even typhus, for it is by 
no means impossible that a case of typhus should declare itself 
in a flock ravaged by the disease of the blood. But here we are 
making an altogether gratuitous concession. The existence of 
malignant pustules in M. Cerveau’s patient is by no means 
proved. It is true that we have the assertion of that gentleman ; 
but no authority, be it what it may, can have any weight against 
carefully collected and publicly attested facts. A single authority 
is valueless in the eyes of science. And has M. Cerveau any 
right to require of us that we shall take his word, while he at the 
same time impugns the authority of several veterinary surgeons 1 
Far from it : we can almost invoke a testimony contradictory of 
his. Dr. Daubanel, a conscientious and observing practitioner, 
who saw the patient, on being consulted by us on the subject, 
replies that he very much doubted whether there was any malig- 
nant pustules. And had not M. Cerveau himself some doubts ] 
We would fain believe so in order to justify the uncertainty of his 
conduct, and the contradictory nature of his therapeutic mea- 
sures; for we do not consider leeches, which we forgot to mention, 
mucilaginous drinks, and emollient embrocations, as being the 
best or most prompt means of arresting the progress of malignant 
pustules. 
But why waste so many words on a fact of no weight, one that 
will not bear examination, and is not of a nature to become esta- 
blished, any more than the assertion of Dr. Herpin, that the disease 
of the blood in sheep is capable of producing malignant pustules ! 
Treatment. 
If another proof be requisite to demonstrate that the actual cha- 
racter of apoplectic congestion in sheep, and principally that accom- 
panied by external hsemorrhage, has been and still is mistaken, we 
shall most certainly find it in endless variations that have been made 
in the therapeutic treatment, some of which have been, by turns, 
extolled and abandoned, according as their uselessness was per- 
ceived, or the dangers which they gave rise to. Thus, the disease 
of the blood having been supposed to arise from putrid emanations, 
