DR. LEGEAR'S STOCK BOOK. 307 



hours to two or three days. Recovery is very rare. An examina- 

 tion of the blood shows a dark fluid, which is not clot, and which 

 remains black after exposure to the air. After death the bodies 

 putrify very rapidly and bloat, the tissues are filled with gases, 

 and a bloody foam exudes from the mouth, nostrils, etc. The 

 spleen becomes enlarged from two to five times its natural size, 

 and the pulse is blackish and soft. The liver has a cooked ap- 

 pearance, and the kidneys are congested and also soft. 



Treatment. When the animal becomes affected with charbon 

 it almost invariably dies, as there has been no reliable treatment 

 discovered as yet. Nearly every drug in the pharmacopoeia has 

 been tried with negative results. There is only one form of the 

 disease in which treatment is of any avail, and that is the form 

 in which the disease germs gain access through an external 

 wound or abrasion of the skin. In such cases the swellings 

 should be opened freely by long incisions with a sharp lance and 

 the wound dressed several times a day with strong antiseptic 

 solutions. No matter whether treatment is adopted or not, a few 

 of the affected animals may recover, but recoveries are doubtful. 



Pasteur in 1881 very fortunately discovered a protective vac- 

 cine, which has been thoroughly proven to be a sure preventive 

 against the disease. It is well known how human beings are 

 protected from smallpox by vaccination. All domestic animals 

 can in the same way be protected from anthrax by the use of 

 Pasteur's anthrax vaccine. It is a specially prepared liquid, a 

 few drops of which are injected under the skin by the use of a 

 hypodermic syringe. Vaccination consists of two inouculations, 

 the first with a very weak virus, while the second is somewhat 

 stronger and injected about twelve days later. Pasteur's vaccine 

 is not, and is not intended to be a cure for charbon, but animals 

 after being vaccinated enjoy immunity from the disease in nearly 

 every case. Vaccination of the domestic animals against this 

 disease is being practiced quite extensively in various parts of 



