492 
EPIDEMIC TYPHUS AMONG CATTLE. 
The same malady broke out in 1810, among the oxen that 
followed the French army in Spain, and which communicated 
itself to the cattle of La Mancha, and destroyed great numbers 
of them. In 1814, as already mentioned, the Prussian army 
introduced this disease into France ; and the wars of Russia 
with Turkey, in 1826 and 1827, will be long remembered by the 
inhabitants of Moldavia and Wallachia, on account of de- 
struction of the cattle in those provinces. 
With regard to the human being, the fact needs no laboured 
proof, that typhus is an invariable accompaniment of the move- 
ments of great bodies of men ; and it is as surely found among 
the cattle that follow the troops. It is easy to conceive why 
the epizootic typhus has been always brought into France 
through the medium of Germany, Holland, Belgium, and Italy, 
because these kingdoms have been always the theatres of the 
grand European wars ; and because the cattle destined to pro- 
vision these troops have been always drawn from the vast pas- 
tures that border the Danube, or from Hungary and Dalmatia, 
in which these animals so plentifully abound. May it never be 
the destiny of our country to be invaded again by the Germans, 
the Prussians, the Russians, or the Dutch, for to that calamity — 
heavy enough — another would speedily follow, a contagious 
typhus, sweeping away our cattle. 
The causes of this connexion between typhus and the march 
of armies are numerous, and constantly acting. M. Rodet has 
given us a faithful account of them : “ The cattle which follow the 
armies are subjected to violent and frequent changes of country 
and climate and food — exposed, without having been previously 
habituated to them, to long and forced marches, and in despite of 
the intemperate heat or cold of the season or the air — sometimes 
receiving excessive quantities of forage, and that often of a bad 
quality, at other times destitute of all food, and sinking under 
fatigue — obliged sometimes to bivouac on the coldest nights in 
open and exposed places, and at another time crammed into 
stables so closely, that it is impossible for them to lie down, and 
forced to breathe an air impure and charged with every putrid 
and poisonous emanation — drinking plentifully one day of water 
fresh and cold, and on another, forced by thirst to drink as 
eagerly of that which is stagnant and putrid — these cattle, is it 
possible that they should avoid contracting the most fatal mala- 
dies, and especially contagious typhus?” 
This disease, once declared among a crowd of animals as highly 
as possible predisposed to receive the infection, cannot fail of 
spreading in every direction. The subtle emanations which 
escape the sick animal, form around him a contagious atmo- 
