382 
ON PHTHISIS IN COWS, 
gions—and that through means of an organization which no 
science has been able to detect or explain. I know not, in fact, 
whether, on examining with care all the cows that go from the 
dairies of Paris to the abattoirs, we should find any that had the 
pulmonary organ perfectly sound. 
Why is the disease more destructive in some dairies than in 
others V’ 
Why does the disease rage more in some dairies than in 
others, without reference to the construction of the cow-house 
The different manner in which the cow-houses are constructed— 
the greater or less care which is taken to secure a sufficient re¬ 
newal of the air—the course of feeding, more or less natural and 
wholesome—and, more than all, the care which is taken to pur¬ 
chase the best and healthiest cows, these considerations, and 
particularly the last, will perfectly explain these pretended ano¬ 
malies. Is it astonishing that the rich dairyman—he who, on 
account of his money, is able to pay better; who can select the 
best cows that are brought to Paris, or who can send his bailiff 
to buy them at the best markets—should lose fewer cows than 
others ? Is it astonishing that this wealthy man, when he hears 
one of his cows beginning to cough, chooses rather to fatten her 
for the butcher than continue to milk her, at the risk of 
seeing her eventually perish by consumption ? a result which 
continually happens to the poorer dairyman, who, not having the 
means so to fatten his cow at the moment as to produce much 
money, with which he may purchase another to supply her place, 
continues to milk her until a sudden attack of phthisis forces him 
to get rid of her at any price. 
“ Wherefore, in certain years, is the disease more violent than 
in others V’ 
‘‘ Why does the malady rage as much in summer as in winter, 
although in the former season the cow-houses are well venti¬ 
lated ?” 
If there are certain years when the variations in the tempera¬ 
ture of the atmosphere are more sudden, or of greater extent, 
the greater or less intensity of the disease is well explained ; 
and at other times, when we are unable to devise the cause of 
these differences, it is fair to attribute them to changes in the 
atmosphere, the nature of which has hitherto escaped the re¬ 
searches of the most scientific persons. There are many other 
diseases, the intensity and the very development of which we 
are perfectly sure that we are right in attributing to atmospheric 
influence, although we cannot explain the nature of that in¬ 
fluence. 
With regard to the second of these questions, we know that a 
