314 ANTHRAX 



wall, and ultimately reach, and multiply in the blood. It is 

 known that in the great majority of cases of the disease in sheep 

 and oxen, infection takes place thus from the intestine. It was 

 thought by Pasteur that worms were active agents in the natural 

 spread of the disease by bringing to the surface anthrax spores. 

 Koch made direct experiments on this point, and could get no 

 evidence that such was the case. He thinks it much more 

 probable that the recrudescence of epidemics in fields where 

 anthrax carcases have been buried is due to persistence of 

 spores on the surface which has been infected by the cattle when 

 alive. 



The Disposal of the Carcases of Animals dead of Anthrax. It is ex- 

 tremely important that anthrax carcases should be disposed of in such a 

 way as to prevent their becoming future sources of infection. If anthrax 

 be suspected as the cause of death no post mortem examination should be 

 made, but only a small quantity of blood removed from an auricular 

 vein for bacteriological investigation. If such a carcase be now buried 

 in a deep pit surrounded by quicklime, little danger of infection will be 

 run. The bacilli being confined within the body will not spore, and 

 will die during the process of putrefaction. The danger of sporulation 

 taking place is, of course, much greater when an animal has died of an 

 unknown disease which on post mortem examination has proved to be 

 anthrax, but similar measures for burial must be here adopted. In some 

 countries anthrax carcases are burned, and this, if practicable, is of 

 course the best means of treating them. The chief source of danger to 

 cattle subsequently, however, proceeds from the infection of fields, yards, 

 and byres with the offal and the discharge from the mouths of anthrax 

 animals. All material that can be recognised as such should be burned 

 along with the straw in which the animals have lain. The stalls or 

 buildings in which the anthrax cases have been must be limewashed. 

 Needless to say, the greatest care must be taken in the case of men who 

 handle the animal or its carcase that they have no wounds on their 

 persons, and that they thoroughly disinfect themselves by washing their 

 hands, etc., in 1 to 1000 solution of corrosive sublimate, and that all 

 clothes soiled with blood, etc., from anthrax animals be thoroughly 

 boiled or steamed for half an hour before being washed. 



The Immunising of Animals against Anthrax. Having 

 ascertained that there was ground for believing that in cattle 

 one attack of anthrax protected against a second, Pasteur (in 

 the years 1880-82) elaborated a method by which a mild form 

 of the disease could be given to animals, which rendered 

 harmless a subsequent inoculation with virulent bacilli. He 

 found that the continued growth of anthrax bacilli at 42 to 

 43 C. caused them to lose their capacity of producing spores, 

 and also gradually to lose their virulence, so that after twenty- 

 four days they could no longer kill either guinea-pigs, rabbits, 

 or sheep. Such cultures constituted his premier vaccin, and 



