9O ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION 



Smith, Professor in the Harvard Medical School. Think 

 of the losses from anthrax, or charbon, or splenic fever, as 

 it is variously called. In the Russian province of Novgorod, 

 five hundred and twenty-eight men and fifty-six thousand 

 cattle, horses, oxen, cows, and sheep died of anthrax be- 

 tween 1867 and 1870. In 1877, when Pasteur began his 

 studies of anthrax, the " French provinces of Beauce, Brie, 

 Burgundy, Nivernais, Berry, Champagne, Dauphine, and 

 Auvergne paid a formidable yearly tribute to this mys- 

 terious scourge. In Beauce, for instance, twenty sheep 

 out of every hundred died in one flock ; in some parts of 

 Auvergne the proportion was ten or fifteen per cent, some- 

 times even twenty-five, thirty-five, or fifty per cent. At 

 Provins, at Meaux, at Fontainebleau, some farms were 

 called cJiarbon farms; elsewhere, certain fields or hills were 

 looked upon as accursed, and an evil spell seemed to be 

 thrown over flocks bold enough to enter those fields or 

 ascend those hills. Animals stricken with this disease al- 

 most always died in a few hours ; sheep were seen to lag 

 behind the flock, with drooping head, shaking limbs and 

 gasping breath ; after a rigor and some sanguinolent evacu- 

 ations, occurring also through the mouth and nostrils, death 

 supervened, often before the shepherd had had time to no- 

 tice the attack." J In Beauce, in some particularly bad 

 years, the loss in money is said to have reached twenty 

 million francs. 



Not less affecting is this picture of another infectious 

 disease a disaster of the farmyard. " Hens, believed to 

 be good sitters, are found dead on their nests. Others, 

 surrounded by their brood, allow the chicks to leave them, 

 giving them no attention; they stand motionless in the 

 centre of the yard, staggering under a deadly drowsiness. 

 A young and superb cock, whose triumphant voice was 

 yesterday heard by all the neighbors, falls into a sudden 



1 Life of Pasteur, vol. ii, p. 45. 



