ANTHRAX, OR CARBUNCULAR FEVER. 281 



this country, I have had occasion to draw the attention of 

 veterinarians and stock-owners to changes occurring in the 

 nature of prevailing disorders, and to the great danger at- 

 tending the slaughter of animals dying of blood diseases to 

 be disposed of as human food. Every year we now learn of 

 cases of malignant pustule in man ; and of pigs, dogs, and 

 other animals dying when fed on the bodies of certain 

 diseased cattle or sheep. This summer, an East-Lothian 

 farmer had a diseased bullock dressed by a butcher, and the 

 carcass was sent in a hamper to some large town. Not 

 long after the despatch of the carcass, it was found that the 

 pigs which were eating of the entrails were dying, and few, 

 if any, were saved. 



During the international Congress of Veterinary Surgeons 

 held in Hamburgh, it was remarked that among the maladies 

 which called for legislation with a view to their prevention 

 was the anthrax fever, which in the United Kingdom is only 

 rarely a contagious affection, but which threatens to become 

 more prevalent in the course of time. On my return from 

 Hamburgh, I learned that a telegram had been received from 

 Lincolnshire, at the New Veterinary College, on the 18th of 

 July, requesting the immediate attendance of one of its Pro- 

 fessors. Professor Law, who, in my absence, proceeded to 

 Lincolnshire, returned to Edinburgh after having carefully 

 ascertained the origin and nature of the raging malady, and 

 I was requested to attend as soon as possible, and found, as 

 Mr Law had reported, that animals of various kinds were 

 dying from anthrax. 



On the banks of the forty-foot drain (which drains the 

 fens of Eckington and Swineshead, and empties itself into 

 the sea) about seven miles from Boston, are some low un- 

 drained fields, on which horses, cattle, sheep, and pigs are 

 fed. The district is a healthy one, but about three years ago 



