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works of Paulet and Vicq d'Azyr, written at the same time, not being the labour of men practising the medical art, are on a level as to the notions which they have handed down to us; but that of Vicq d'Azyr being the better of the two, we shall extract therefrom what may chiefly interest us.

      Vicq d'Azyr relates the history of the epizootics, and expatiates on the original cause of the typhus in horned cattle, and on its nature. The passages in which he treats of its mode of propagation and its treatment, are the most deserving of our notice.

      He says, that he tried to no purpose to communicate the disease a second time to animals which had been fortunate enough to get cured.

      That cows covered with the fresh skins stripped from dead cattle, victims to the distemper, did not contract it.

      That infected clothes which had been worn by men who had served in hospitals where cattle were under treatment, having been laid on the backs of several beasts in sound health, were found to transmit the distemper in three cases out of six.

      That the gases expelled from the intestines, received into a bladder ball, and let out under the noses of healthy cattle, have communicated the disease to them, after ten or fifteen days of latent incubation; and that the same gases being mixed with their drink, have also propagated the contagion.

      That frictions, with the hands impregnated with virus, having been made over the skin, did not produce any ill effects.

      That some oxen which had been designedly placed for a few hours among sick animals, have afterwards been seized with the distemper.

      That a calf which had been placed in a stall containing some oxen grievously affected, but which calf had a basket beneath its nose filled with aromatic herbs, withstood the contagion.

      That cowsheds which had been partially cleansed and fumigated, transmitted the disease to other cattle, even several months after they had been vacated.

      Finally, he mentions the experiments of inoculation made by Lay and in England, but not understanding their aim and capacity, he adds, that inoculation does not seem to him of any use, since the inoculated animals all died. Yet he quotes the encouraging results obtained by Camper in Holland, who, out of 112 inoculated cattle, saved 41; and those of Koopman, who, out of 94, cured 45 by this very inoculation.

      He reminds us that the cattle typhus is an abiding disease in Hungary and Russia, where the beasts having bad water to drink, can only be protected by a constant use of marine salt (sel gemme); but being deprived of this salt, when they go great distances to be sold, and being exposed to extreme fatigue and privations, the typhus then spreads among them. He likewise tells us that Hungary and Dalmatia, which used to supply the markets of Italy with butcher's meat, were obliged to give up sending any cattle there, the Italians having firmly refused to purchase the same at any price whatever.

      As regards treatment, the advice which Vicq d'Azyr gives to agriculturists, is mostly borrowed from the authors who have written on the great epizootics of 1711, and 1745 to 1755. Thus, he advises them to give as drinks in the first stage, water whitened with meal and nitred; to purge the animals with linseed oil; even to make scarifications on the skin, and to keep up the suppuration with turpentine; to make the animals inhale six times a day vapours seasoned with vinegar; to wrap them over with woollen cloths; to bleed them once or twice; to administer to them, when diarrhœa shows itself, a beverage containing wormwood, quinine, and diascordium; to cut open the tumours containing pus or air, etc.

      It is, as is seen, the same treatment as that quoted above; he guarantees its success, and supports his views by the authority of Van Swieten and Huxan.

      Van Swieten, however, had somewhat modified the treatment, by the predominance which he allowed to acids; and this course seemed to him to be only reasonable with respect to animals whose sick humours contain an excess of alkali.

      Vicq d'Azyr fixed his attention on the means of prevention, the most effectual of which, in his opinion, was to slaughter every animal which had either sickened, or had been exposed to the influence of the contagion; and as he insisted that the authorities had no measures to keep in this matter of public interest, he made it a principle that the government was bound to compensate the cattle proprietors whose animals had to be killed – the more so, said he, that the crafty husbandmen would never come forward and freely declare the invalidity of their cattle, unless some indemnity were held out to them, which they would look upon as a sort of equivalent for the benefits they had expected by cutting them up and selling them as the food of man.

      The doctors of the period, scenting in Vicq d'Azyr a dangerous competitor, considered the advice of exterminating the diseased cattle as an ingenious means of curing them, and as the author's age and experience gave warrant for this satirical tone of discussion, the public joined them in laughing at him.

      The epizootic typhus, if not so destructive, was at least as frequent in the early part of the nineteenth century, as it had been during the eighteenth. The armies during the wars of united Europe against the French Republic and Empire, found it constantly in their train. Nor could it be otherwise, the two leading causes of its prevalence being at hand. For on one hand there was the transit of large herds from the steppes of Hungary, and on the other the wretched hygienic conditions amidst which the cattle had to live in the campaigning armies.

      Many books have been published of late years on the diseases of cattle, in France and Germany; and several distinguished English veterinary surgeons, especially Professor Simonds, have also devoted their attention to the same subject. In the second part of this work, we shall have occasion to refer to their labours.

      In France, Renault, Delafond, d'Arboval, Gellé, whose works enjoy a deserved reputation, have discussed the subject of the origin of this disease.

      Renault asserts that the disease has but one single focus, the steppes of Russia and Hungary. The epizootics of Asia, Africa, and South America are caused, he considers, by the importation of animals to those countries. It is thus that he explains the epizootia which, under the name of Delombodera, devastated the American Republics in 1832, and that which, in 1841, appeared in Egypt. Renault thinks that neither the long transit, nor the filthy state of the markets, nor the most wretched feeding, are sufficient to account for contagious typhus among cattle; that in addition to these causes, it still requires, in order to produce and generate it among animals, a predisposition, and a special aptitude, such as, hitherto at least, do not appear to have been witnessed except in the progeny of the steppes.

      The other professors of his fraternity have submitted arguments to him, which to us seem very rational; and we will endeavour to do justice to them when we discuss the origin of the typhus which at this moment is afflicting England.

VI

      These historical dissertations and speculations on the subject of the bovine epizootia certainly deserve to draw the attention of all who feel an interest in the malady; but how insignificant they are compared with the concluding facts which I have still to mention, before I at length address myself to the consideration of the epizootia which is now consuming our herds!

      The indisputable fact that so terrible a distemper as this typhus had fixed itself permanently in Russia, and that it was causing incalculable losses to the lordly proprietors of the steppes, as well as to the government, roused them at last from their indifference. Then, indeed, they urged the veterinary doctors to adopt some energetic means to arrest the long duration of the scourge, and we must admit to their honour, that various experiments which were tried for the purpose of preventing the evil, have been crowned with complete success. Any one may ascertain the fact by referring to the Journal Magazin of Berlin, in which the learned Professor Jessen of Dorpat has explained the results of these important experiments.

      The Russian veterinarians having observed that the oxen which had been cured of the typhus could mingle with impunity with the infected herds, conceived the idea of communicating the complaint to sound cattle by means of inoculation, and thereby to shield them from the contagion.

      The first experiments in the inoculation of Tchouma or cattle typhus, were made in the year 1853, by order of the government, in the neighbourhood of Odessa, at the Heridin farm, by Professor Jessen.

      The first inoculative attempts were very fatal;

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