1NFLUENCI-: Ol' CIJMATE ON ANIMAL DlSKASE. 479 



ease with water. This association is one which has long been 

 recognised, and reference has been made to it previously in this 

 paper when s]:)eaking of the prevalence of the disease in the 

 neighbourhood of swamps, river courses, pools, etc. Numerous 

 observations have been made in tliis connection, and the import- 

 ance of flowing water in distributing anthrax spores or of 

 stationary collections forming resting-places for them has been 

 referred to. It would be interesting to luok into these observa- 

 tions here if we could afford to do so. but as we cannot, refer- 

 ence may be confined to one or two of them. One that might 

 be specially mentioned comes from a worker in Tfungary, who. 

 having to deal with an outbreak of the disease in cattle, came 

 to the conclusion that the source of infection must have been the 

 drinking water. The cattle in this case were watered from pools 

 formed along the bed of a river which had run dry following a 

 long period of drought, and it is noteworthy that the cattle which 

 died were those which were in the habit of drinking last from 

 the pools after the other members of the herd had stirred up 

 the mud from the bottom. Having come to the conclusion that 

 the drinking water was the source of infection, he made a bac- 

 teriological examination of samples of the water and also the 

 mud from the bottom of these pools, and as a result of this 

 examination, and by using special methods, he was able to prove 

 the existence of the antlirax organism in these samples. 



Another observation which is interesting to us, thougli not 

 so conclusive as the last, is made by Smith in referring to the 

 occurrence of the disease in India, which, to use his words, is a 

 notorious anthrax country. He refers to the soil conditions there 

 being suitable for the development of the disease, and points out 

 that the diseases is seasonal. According to him, the disease is 

 practically limited to the wet season, and almost invariably asso- 

 cited with recent rainfall. The explanation he suggests for this 

 is that the rain-water acts as a distributing agent for the anthrax 

 spores, washes these into the pools formed during the rains, and 

 that animals become infected from food washed in these pools 

 He states that in India it is a practice to wash grass or hay in 

 pools before feeding it to animals, and that with abolition of this 

 practice througli the efforts of the Veterinary Department, a 

 great reduction in the number of anthrax outbreaks has occurred. 



Now these particular observations have been introduced and 

 stress purposely laid on them here because of the apparent im- 

 portance which water has on the sj)read of the disease in .'^outh 

 Africa. In the Transvaal, whilst the disease is met with all the 

 year round, it is in the wet summer months that it is most jireva- 

 lent, and its association with pans or other collections of water 

 where animals are watered has been noted. That similar condi- 

 tions are met with in other parts is evident. Mr. Dixon, Gov- 

 ernment Veterinary Surgeon of Cape Province, states that in 

 that Province the disease is widespread, the only area in whicli 

 it is not endemic being the Karroo, and that it shows a season- 

 able prevalence, the greatest incidence falling within tlie summer 



