256 VETERINARY HYGIENE 



hides contaminated with anthrax spores showed that the former 

 gave the better results. The Schattenfroh method consists of 

 soaking the hides in hydrochloric acid and salt, and Tilley found 

 that at room temperature the acid should be 2 per cent, and salt 

 10 per cent, and the exposure for 48 hours. The Seymour-Jones 

 method consists of soaking hides in formic acid, and later in mercurv 

 bichloride. Anthrax spores were found by Tilley to be destroyed 

 by exposure for 2 hours to a mixture containing 1 : 2000 mercury 

 bichloride and 1 per cent, formic acid in the presence of organic 

 matter such as 10 per cent, defibrinated blood. 



Immunity is conferred by one attack if the animal survives. 

 Methods of vaccination are to be considered only in herds in which 

 there is a steady annual loss from anthrax, and as such cases do not 

 occur in Great Britain, a very brief notice only is necessary. The 

 first, best known and most widely practised method of vaccination 

 was that evolved by Pasteur which consisted in subjecting animals to 

 two inoculations at an interval of about 12 days with bacilli attenu- 

 ated in virulence. Though the method has done good service and 

 produces immunity for about a year, experiments in Great Britain 

 have shown that the method is not without risk and is at times 

 inefficacious. A very efficient anti-anthrax serum has been pro- 

 duced which can be used with the greatest advantage in the case of 

 animals w r hich show high temperature in a herd in which the 

 disease has already been diagnosed. 



BLACK QUARTER. ~ 



Black quarter (quarter evil, quarter ill, blackleg, murrain) 

 is an acute disease caused by a specific micro-organism, the bacillus 

 of black quarter, and characterised by the development in some 

 part of the muscular system of an inflammatory infiltration accom- 

 panied by emphysema and usually by darkening and necrosis of 

 the over-lying skin. The disease appears with the greatest frequency 

 in the ox, but it is by no means uncommon in the sheep, and experi- 

 mentally sheep are more susceptible than cattle. Black quarter 

 has been the cause of serious losses in sheep in Great Britain, but 

 it seems that cases are not so often diagnosed in this species as in 

 cattle. The goat is susceptible. The pig is usually considered to be 

 immune, but cases of alleged black quarter in this animal have been 

 described. Von Ratz* produced absolutely characteristic lesions 

 by inoculation of two pigs with muscular tissue of cattle dead of 

 *Journ. Comp.Path., 1914, Vol. XXVIL, p. 175, Abs. 



