ANTHEAX, OE CAKBUNCULAK FEVER 285 



forms of anthrax prevail, I may conclude by stating a, That 

 the British Isles are peculiar for retentive soils favourable 

 for the development of anthrax, b, Prior to the intro- 

 duction of improvements in agriculture, and especially 

 prior to the appreciation of the value of drainage as a 

 means to increase the productiveness of the soil, certain fatal 

 forms of anthrax were more common than they are at pre- 

 sent, c, It is not frequent that the anthrax poison is de- 

 veloped in this country, and, as a rule, its development is 

 limited to hot seasons and the summer months, d, This 

 anthrax poison induces malignant pustule in man, but not 

 with the same frequency in the United Kingdom as in 

 warmer climates. It would appear, however, from the in- 

 creased prevalence of splenic apoplexy, that there is an in- 

 crease instead of a diminution in the danger of human beings 

 suffering from malignant pustule or allied disorders. 



The diseases which I shall now more particularly refer to 

 under this head, are all regarded as forms of anthrax in dif- 

 ferent parts of the Continent, or as usually associated with 

 the development of a poisonous principle that cannot be dis- 

 tinguished from the anthracoid virus. The best writers on 

 carbuncular diseases have classified the different forms under 

 three heads : 



I. Carbuncular Fever without local complications. This 

 includes the anthrax fever of Solipedes, and the ' blood strik- 

 ing,' ' Blutstaupe/ of cattle and sheep. The latter disease is 

 not regarded by Delafond as a form of anthrax, but it is by 

 all other continental authors. It is also called 'sang de rate,' 

 or splenic apoplexy. Braxy in sheep. 



II. Carbuncular Fevers, with erysipelatous complications. 

 The black-leg or quarter-ill of Britain, known to the Ger- 

 mans under the names of Milzbrand, emphysem des Rind- 

 viehes, fliegencles feuer, &c., &c. ; black spald in sheep ; car- 



