250 ON FEVEES AMONGST HOKSES, CATTLE, ETC. 



to the properties of dilution and disinfection wliich belong to the 

 atmosphere in no slight degree ; and although we must admit 

 those properties may at times be present in less degree than at 

 others, and overpowering heat before and after rain and fogs may- 

 intensify the pollution of the air, yet we believe we are not 

 justified in pronouncing the entire origin of anthrax fevers to such 

 states alone. It is during the continuance of excessive heat and 

 occasional rains or prolonged droughts on marshy lands that these 

 diseases sometimes arise very suddenly and rage with all the 

 powers of a fatal epizootic. The air is perceptibly tainted with 

 noisome odours over certain areas, and there disease is doing its 

 worst; while in all probability in the adjoining pasture, or 

 certainly not very far distant, there are other cattle enduring 

 apparently similar privations, such as scanty herbage, scarcity 

 of water, '&c., &c., and they are in good health. It appears the 

 air of a district, although sensibly offensive, may not be the sole 

 cause ; indeed, it may have little to do with the production of 

 some of the forms of the disease in question, for with its move- 

 ment, powers of diffusion, dilution, and disinfection, its hurtful 

 propensities are rapidly and largely diminished. Nevertheless, 

 it may, nor do we doubt that it contains myriads of microscopical 

 or invisible particles, the products of wholesale corruption going 

 on within or upon the soil, and they doubtless assist in the work 

 of blood pollution ; but we are inclined to lay much more stress 

 on the proposition that the products of decomposition mainly 

 find their way into the blood by means of the food and water. 

 This view is pre-eminently borne out by the course which the 

 maladies run. Mere atmospheric influence could not, we think, 

 produce such wide-spread and wholesale fatalities in so short a 

 time. The blood is evidently the original seat of the disease, a 

 septic condition being produced by the direct transmission to it 

 of some of the material undergoing intense and perfect decom- 

 position ; indeed we might almost compare the results to wilful 

 inoculation, and thus we have developed more speedy revelations 

 than we believe can take place only through the medium of the 

 atmosphere. This view is also borne out by the behaviour of 

 the disease as it appears in those animals under confinement in 

 an atmosphere rendered impure from decomposition of animal 

 matters. Thousands of cattle are annually fed on manure which 

 accumulates beneath them to the extent of many tons, and on 

 which they rest and luxuriate, and thrive as well as they are 

 expected up to their being slaughtered. Besides, this practice 

 goes on for years on some farms without a casualty from anthrax, 

 and, further, it continues still on others, and such a complaint 

 has never been seen. Yet we cannot close our eyes to the fact 

 that there is the very essence of putridity beneath, probably 

 several feet in depth. There is certainly here enough filth 



