166 



possibly have been brought here by infected animals, the conclu- 

 sion was reluctantly arrived at that the disease had been intro- 

 duced and spread maliciously. 



The first appearance of the disease occurred on a ranch at 

 Hanalei, on Kauai, and unfortunately a considerable number of 

 animals had died before the diagnosis of anthrax was made and 

 many carcasses had been buried in shallow graves. Serum vac- 

 cine was cabled for and pending its arrival every measure was 

 taken to prevent the further spread of the disease. The cattle 

 were then dying at the rate of ten per day, and it soon became 

 evident that nearly all the paddocks on the ranch had been in- 

 fected, so nothing could be gained by moving the cattle around. 

 A strict quarantine, enforced by guards, was established, and, as 

 soon as received, the entire herd, some 2400 head, were injected 

 with the serum simultaneous anthrax vaccine. Up to this time 

 some 225 animals, mostly cows, had died, and a large force of 

 men was required for burning the carcasses and fencing in the 

 graves of the earlier cases. The vaccination did not stop the 

 losses immediately, so it became necessary to revaccinate the 

 whole herd one month later, when a total of about 300 head had 

 died. The disease had then lasted from the beginning of April, 

 was well under control by the middle of May, though a few 

 scattering cases were observed as late as August. 



How the disease was scattered over the ranch is not known 

 to this day. The contents of the salt and bonemeal boxes in 

 the infected pastures were tested by animal inoculations without 

 result. Practically all the paddocks are high and well drained 

 and offer little or no opportunity for the permanent establish- 

 ment of the anthrax infection. This makes the sudden appear- 

 ance of the disease in that isolated district so much more re- 

 markable. 



However, the end was not yet. During the middle of May, 

 anthrax suddenly made its appearance in a dairy herd almost in 

 the heart of Honolulu. Of approximately 100 milch cows, one- 

 third died in the course of 48 hours. The place was quarantined 

 and the remaining animals were serum vaccinated. In this case 

 the disease was found to have been spread by means of a bag of 

 beet pulp, which was found to be heavily infected with anthrax 

 spores. Only this bag out of a shipment of several hundred 

 proved to be infected, and as the feed room at the dairy was left 

 open at all times, the matter of infecting one of the bags of feed 

 by pouring an anthrax culture over it would meet with little dif- 

 ficulty. 



The final surprise came, however, when anthrax was reported 

 from the Island of Maui. There in the course of ten days, dur- 

 ing the month of June, no less than seven distinct outbreaks oc- 

 curred in widely scattered districts. The losses, however, were 

 insignificant, totalling less than fifty head of cattle and horses. 

 Whoever scattered the disease in this case had evidently been in 

 a hurry, as well as being ignorant about how to make the infec- 



