ANTHRAX. 529 



number of horses, especially on a farm where there are a number of 

 colts, it may be assumed that the greater majority will contract the 

 disease, and it is more economical that they should have it and be 

 through with it at once. If the weather is moderate, all the animals 

 which have not been affected can be inoculated, which will produce 

 the disease in a mild form, with the eruption at a point of election, 

 and render the danger of complication a minimum one. For inocula- 

 tion the discharge from the pustules of a mild case should be selected 

 and inoculated by scarification on the belly or the under surface of 

 the neck. 



ANTHRAX, 



[Synonyms: Carbuncle, splenic fever, splenic apoplexy, hraxy (in sheep), 

 etc. ; sacer ignis, pustula maligna, anthrax, Latin ; charhon, sang de rate, 

 French ; miltshrand, German ; carhonc, cardoncMo, fiioco de St. Antonio, Italian ; 

 jaswa, siherskaji jastva, Russian.] 



Definition. — Anthrax is a severe and usually fatal contagious dis- 

 ease, characterized by chills, great depression and stupor of the ani- 

 mal, and a profound alteration of the blood. It is caused by the 

 entrance into the animal's body of a bacterium, known as the Bacillus 

 anthracis, or its spores. 



Practically all animals are susceptible to anthrax. The herbivora 

 are especially susceptible, in the following order: The sheep, the ox, 

 and the horse. The guinea pig, the hog, the rabbit, mice, and other 

 animals die quickly from its effects. Man, the dog, and other omniv- 

 ora and carnivora may be attacked by it in a constitutional form as 

 fatal as in the herbivora, but fortunately, in many cases, develop 

 from it only local trouble, followed by recovery. 



Anthrax has been a scourge of the animals of the civilized world 

 since the first written history we have of any of their diseases. In 

 1709-1712 A. D. extensive outbreaks of anthrax occurred in Germany, 

 Hungary, and Poland. In the first half of the present century it had 

 become an extensively spread disease in Russia, Holland, and Eng- 

 land, and for the last century has been gradually spreading in the 

 Americas — more so in South America than here. In 1864, in the five 

 governments of Petersburg, Novgorod, Olonetz, Twer, and Jaroslaw, 

 in Russia, over 10,000 horses and nearly 1,000 persons perished from 

 the disease. 



Causes. — The causes of anthrax were for a long time attributed 

 entirely to climatic influence, soil, and atmospheric temperature, and 

 they are still recognized as predisposing factors in the development of 

 the disease, for it is usually found, especially when outbreaks over any 

 number of animals occur, in low, damp, marshy countries during the 

 warm seasons. It is more frequent in districts where marshy lands 

 dry out during the heat of summer and are then covered with light 

 H. Doc. 795, 59-2 34 



