160 



"In the local form, or cutaneous anthrax, in the horse, the 

 swellings occur at the points of entrance of the bacilli or spores, 

 where there are abrasions of the skin or mucous membrane, or 

 where biting insects have brought the infection from a previous 

 case. These swellings appear suddenly at the point of inocula- 

 tion and are characterized by a rapidly-spreading edema. The 

 general symptoms are not so urgent, the fever is less intense, and 

 the mortality, while not so great as in the more acute form, is 

 still high. 



"Post-Mortem Appearances. 



"The animal that has died of anthrax will nearly always be 

 found much bloated, with blood coming from the nose and rec- 

 tum. There will be evidences on the ground that the animal died 

 a violent death, in coi-^vulsions. Local swellings will be present 

 or absent according to the type of the disease. In the rapidly 

 fatal cases little change will be noted either in the blood or in- 

 ternal organs beyond those produced by high blood pressure, indi- 

 cated by swollen spleen and engorged liver. The carcass itself — 

 the edible portions — would show nothing that would make it 

 doubtful as food. In the more prolonged cases a hemorrhagic 

 condition will be noted in all the internal organs. The blood will 

 be tarry in appearance and will not clot. The heart is often light 

 in color, while on the inside it will be found deeply stained and 

 containing dark, uncoagulated blood. The liver may be found 

 enlarged and is easily torn in handling, presenting on its surface 

 hemorrhagic areas. The spleen is often specially enlarged and 

 distorted in shape, and ruptures on handling. 



''The bacilli of anthrax can be found in largest numbers in 

 those organs where the lesions are most pronounced, namely, the 

 spleen, liver, and engorged lymphatic glands, but they are com- 

 monly found in any part of the vascular system. In the serous 

 cavities, such as the pericardial, the pleural, and the peritoneal, 

 may be found a sanguineous fluid consisting of serum, red and 

 white cells, and anthrax bacilli. The hyperemia and areas of the 

 extravasated blood may appear at any point of the body where 

 the bacilli have become localized and enormously multiplied, 

 forming capillary embolisms, which consist of broken-down blood 

 corpuscles, and bacilli. Hence they are frequent in the tongue, 

 throat, lungs, stomach, and intestinal walls ; the mesentery and 

 the omentum ; the skin, connective tissue, and the muscles. 



The Cause of Death. 



"From the manner of death it would seem that the poison of 

 anthrax acts specifically upon the center of respiration, this in 

 turn allowing a fatal accumulation of carbon dioxid in the blood. 

 That it is the replacement of the oxygen of the blood by carbon 

 dioxid that is the immediate cause of death in anthrax is further 

 shown by the loss in the blood of the property of coagulation, it 



