26 THE ITINERANT HORSE PHYSICIAN 



charbon. I explained that charbon and anthrax 

 were the same and complimented him on his 

 ability to diagnose the case. He stated that he 

 was quite familiar with this disease, having been 

 raised in the low-lands of east Texas. "But," he 

 said, "folks hereabouts always call in charbon." 



Of course I remembered the synonyms of anth- 

 rax. 



The horse died in about three hours, having 

 had, no doubt, the apoplectic form. 



Anthrax, or charbon, was very common in that 

 country in those days. Even within the city it 

 was not rare. I clearly remember an instance in 

 my experience occurring in a small dairy which 

 was conducted in the residence portion of Hous- 

 ton. Three or four cows died in two davs with 



ml 



anthrax. 



So common was the disease that many people 

 would not call in the veterinarian at all, recogniz- 

 ing the disease themselves and "just letting them 

 die." 



This was no doubt one of the reasons why the 

 disease was so common; almost no preventive 

 measures were taken and carcasses were not 

 properly destroyed. 



Another disease which was very common there 

 was tetanus. Very few horses died from it, how- 

 ever; it seemed to run a very mild course. The 

 latter point made it necessary for me to change 

 my prognosis in tetanus cases; in Wisconsin we 

 usually gave a very unfavorable prognosis 

 because the mortality there from tetanus was 

 very high. Here, in Texas, I discovered that I 



