159 



manifests itself in a typical anthrax district, as well as describing 

 the symptoms of anthrax in the various classes of domestic ani- 

 mals, the following paragraphs are quoted herewith : 



"The symptoms of anthrax will vary with the species and with 

 the type of the disease, except that in the last stages of any of the 

 three types the most pronounced symptoms are identical. In the 

 most acute type the animal may appear at first to be perfectly 

 well and keep along with its fellows even when its temperature 

 is very high — as high as 106° F. Along with such a temperature 

 we shall of course find a rapid pulse and increased respiration. 

 When one is standing close beside such an animal the heart beats 

 may be plainly heard. Soon other symptoms, such as grinding 

 of the teeth, tremors, and standing with head down, appear. 

 Then appear drooping of the head and ears and a disposition to 

 lie down. Animals that have been lively will now decline to rise 

 unless handled roughly. They become stupid and sleepy and 

 very weak in the hind parts. Whereas the temperature has all 

 along been high, it now shows a sharp decline, and before death 

 may become subnormal. The visible mucous membranes are a 

 dusky red, especially those of the rectum and vulva. There is a 

 bloody nasal discharge. The feces will be coated with a bloody 

 mucus. Local swellings appear in the mouth, throat, neck, and 

 breast (especially in horses), and there are sharp attacks of colic 

 and convulsions which end the misery of the animal in from 

 twelve to forty-eight hours after the disease is first noticed. 

 Pregnant animals are liable to abort and thus greatly spread 

 the infection through the copious discharges. An out- 

 break has its highest mortality at its onset, while later on some 

 animals, especially horses and mules, may recover. In the most 

 acute types, which occur mostly in cattle and sheep, the animal 

 is found dead. A cow which seemed well at night is found dead 

 in the morning, or if death occurs in the daytime, the illness is of 

 short duration, occupying only a few minutes or one to two 

 hours. In these sudden attacks the symptoms follow each other 

 so rapidly and death is so sudden that sometimes the owner is 

 convinced that the animal has been poisoned. The attack is 

 ushered in with trembling, anxious expression, high fever, roll- 

 ing of the eyes, and convulsive movements, soon followed by gen- 

 eral convulsions and death. 



"In the local form or cutaneous anthrax in cattle, swellings 

 appear suddenly on different parts of the body at one or many 

 places, and the animal dies with the same symptoms as occur in 

 the most acute type when the bacilli reach the circulating blood 

 from these local lesions. When the infection occurs in the tongue 

 or pharnyx, we have in the first case gloss anthrax, and in the 

 latter pharyngeal anthrax, the symptoms varying somewhat, ac- 

 cording to the part most affected ; but the general constitutional 

 symptoms will be those already described. In some cases the 

 most prominent symptoms at first will be enormous swellings of 

 the rectal mucous membrane. 



