104 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



disease, and looked upon it chiefly as a paralysis of the pulmonary 

 nerves, but declared himself for the infection of man and animals 

 by means of the blood, flesh, etc. 



Delafond, 1843, studied the disease among sheep (" Maladie de 

 Sang "), and looked upon the abomasum and intestines as the chief 

 seats of the disease, and declared it to be an acute enteritis by 

 which the blood was also complicated. He denied the infectious 

 character of the disease, and sought its etiology in hyper-nourish- 

 ment, and in abnormal chemical changes in the earth. Gerlach 

 1845, looked upon this disease of sheep as identical with anthrax, 

 and proved its infectiousness by direct experiment, and considered 

 the contagium to be volatile and having great tenacity. 



Heusinger, in his noted historical work upon " Animal Plagues," 

 looked upon the disease as a malarial neurosis, and assumed that the 

 infectious elements acted chiefly upon the ganglionic nerve-centers. 

 The primary changes consisted of a paralysis of the blood-vessels 

 of the spleen and the consequential death of its tissues, hence its 

 German name, " Milzbrand " ; following this, the disease is charac- 

 terized by vascular paralysis, blood-stasis, extravasations, and necro- 

 sis in different organs. Contagious elements are developed by the 

 disease, which lead to its extension. These elements are taken up 

 by the lymph and blood-vessels, chiefly the latter, from the parts 

 primarily complicated. The apparent divergence with which the 

 disease manifests itself in different animals is not essential, as the 

 essentials of the disease are nearly the same in all. The disease de- 

 velops primarily in grazing animals, solipeds, ruminants, and swine. 

 All animals are open to infection. 



In 1855 Yirchow followed Heusinger in declaring for the mala- 

 rial nature of the disease ; he emphasized its septic character, and 

 looked upon the cause as a specific ferment. Wald, 1862, laid spe- 

 cial emphasis upon the nature of the soil in the generation of anthrax. 



In 1856 Pollender broke the ground which has gradually led to 

 our modern views of the true nature of anthrax, and its isolation 

 from kindred diseases; so early as 1849 he had found peculiar staff- 

 like bodies in the blood of anthrax-diseased animals. Entirely inde- 

 pendent from the observations of Pollender, Brauell, professor at 

 Dorpat, Pussia, found (1857) the same microscopic elements in the 

 blood of men, sheep, and horses that had perished from the disease. 

 He looked upon them as vibrios, and as he found them intra vitam 

 (during life) in the blood of such animals, considered them to have 

 diagnostic value, while Pollender declared their importance to be 

 still an open question. 



