252 



ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1914 OF 



THE PRINCIPAL OF 



THE ROYAL VETERINARY COLLEGE. 



Anthrax. 



The following Table shows the number of outbreaks of 

 disease and the number of animals attacked during each of 

 the last six years : — 



Year Outbreaks Animals attacked 



1909 ... 1,317 ... 1,698 



1910 ... l,49fi ... 1,776 



1911 ... 907 ... 1,120 



1912 ... 743 ... 8-10 



1913 ... 594 ... 652 



1914 ... 722 ... 796 



For the proper understanding of the above statistics it 

 must be stated that the years 1909 and 1910 are not strictly 

 comparable with the last three years, and that therefore the 

 figures cannot be held to prove that there was a sudden marked 

 decline in the prevalence of anthrax in 1911. Prior to that 

 year the diagnosis in suspected cases was in the hands of the 

 Veterinary Inspectors to the Local Authorities throughout the 

 country, but since the beginning of 1911 the responsibility for 

 diagnosis has been assumed by the officers of the Board of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries. The change in procedure was 

 adopted because of a suspicion that errors in diagnosis were com- 

 paratively frequent, and experience has fully justified it. The 

 difference between the number of outbreaks in 1910 and 1911 

 may thus be taken as mainly due to the elimination of reported 

 cases in which the original suspicion was removed by micro- 

 scopic examination of the animal's blood at the Board's Labora- 

 tory. On the other hand, the last four years are comparable 

 among themselves, and the figures may therefore be taken to 

 indicate that the disease declined in 1912 and 1913, and that 

 during the past year it has notably increased. 



To what this increase has been due it is impossible to say with 

 certainty. Until a few years ago entirely false notions were 

 cvirrent regarding the common origin of outbreaks of anthrax 

 in Great Britain, it being very generally held that the continued 

 existence of the disease was due to persistence of the bacilli or 

 their spores in the soil, and that the soil infection was mainly 

 traceable to careless and ineffectual methods of dealing with 

 anthrax carcasses. It is obvious that if this view were correct 

 recurrent outbreaks on the same farm ought to be the rule, or 

 at least very common, but such is not the case. The disease 

 frequently makes its appearance on farms with a clean historj^ 

 extending back for many years, and in the majority of out- 

 breaks it promptly comes to an end with the death of one or 



