ON FEVERS AMONGST HORSES, CATTLE, ETC. 249 



rest were simply turned into the lanes and fields for food and 

 exercise, during which the drains were closed, and they entirely 

 recovered. At a large dairy farm in Sussex a valuable lot of 

 pigs were seized and died. Others were purchased to fill their 

 places and died also, and subsequently it was found that sewage 

 matters had gained an entrance to the tank below-ground in 

 which the wash food was stored. 



Imperfect drainage of yards, &c., may lead to pollution of 

 ponds, streams, reservoirs, wells, &c., from which the cattle 

 obtain their drinking water ; and in this way, especially during 

 a hot summer, the water being rather scarce, a concentrated 

 poison is conveyed alike destructive to horses as well as 

 cattle and sheep, as proved in several instances during the 

 summer of 1874 in the midland counties of England. It is 

 doubtless from this cause— impure water or impregnation of the 

 wash food with sewage matters, together with the effluvium from 

 closed drains, as well as accumulations of decomposing matter 

 within the styes, that so much of this form of anthrax fever in 

 pigs arises. It is unknown where the animals are allowed their 

 liberty, and have access only to pure water and cleanly food. The 

 instances quoted by the writer are but isolated ones from an exten- 

 sive experience, and are given only as examples of the origin of 

 the affection which he has long received as admitted, rather 

 than multiply the production of cases to support a proposition 

 already accepted also by others. 



A deficient or imperfect ventilation of buildings in which 

 domestic animals are confined almost wholly without exercise, 

 however, does not, 'per se, generate anthrax fever. The air may 

 be very foul, and indeed so close as to destroy life rapidly or 

 only very slowly, yet other conditions are essential for the full 

 development of the various forms of disease under consideration. 

 It is imperative that the air be impregnated with effluvia or 

 exhalations, the products of decomposing animal and vegetable 

 matters, which enter the blood by tlie lungs and communicate to 

 it poisonous qualities, or in other words, entirely destroy its 

 circulating and nutritive properties and render it totally unfit 

 for the support of life. But it is doubtful if such a condition is 

 a large or fruitful source of anthrax diseases generally. They 

 are unquestionably largely produced by filth in one form or other, 

 in combination with other causes, all of which, as experience fully 

 proves, operate chiefly by means of the many facilities tliat are 

 afforded for their direct entrance to the blood. 



It may be profitable to consider this proposition in a common 

 aspect. We know that on the earth's surface there are abundant 

 sources of pollution by which the air is tainted throughout an 

 immeasurable area, and it is positively unbearable, yet no hurtful 

 consequences are known to arise. We owe the absence of harm 



