HISTORY. 179 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ANTHRAX — SPLENIC FEVER — CHARBON — CARBUNCULAR FEVER — 

 GLOSSANTHRAX — BLAIN, ETC. 



History. — Regarding the relative position allotted by compara- 

 tive pathologists to this disease in the equine species, and in 

 accordance with our previously expressed intention of avoid- 

 ing to trespass on the domains of general pathology, we must 

 hut cursorily glance at the history of anthrax, though probably 

 we are in possession of more which relates to it historically 

 than to any other general animal disease. Referred to in 

 Exodus, chap, ix., it is presumed, as the ' boil which came 

 forth as blains upon man and upon beast throughout all 

 Egypt,' in response to the casting forth of ' ashes from the 

 furnace ' by Moses, the modern names of Charbon, Anthrax, 

 and Carbuncle, all signifying ' burning ashes,' would seem 

 somewhat remarkable. Greek and Latin writers on diseases of 

 the domesticated animals evidently describe it under the head 

 of Ot8r]/jia, Sacra ignis, Gutta robea, etc., etc. ; while applied to 

 man the former termed it Anthrax, and the latter Carbunculus ; 

 and in Arabian manuscripts of the middle ages it is foimd 

 mentioned as Atshac-al-Humrah, or Persian fire — each of 

 these several terms evidently intended to convey some idea of 

 the lesion. It is worthy of notice that though anthrax is in 

 our day a comparatively rare disease among horses, from 

 records we have of animal scourges in the past it seems 

 certain that as a malignant epizooty it frequently ravaged 

 both the Continent and the Islands of Europe. Mr. Fleming, 

 in his ' History of Animal Plagues,' refers to several graphic- 

 ally described outbreaks in Great Britain and central and 

 western Europe of what is perfectly evident were visits of 

 both anthrax proper and glossanthrax. The last of these, an 

 epizooty of glossanthrax related by Scheuchzer, occurring in 

 1731-32, appears to have committed great ravages amongst all 

 domestic animals in the states of central and south-western 

 Europe. 



The literature of the subject assumed no approach to a 

 definite form till, in 1780, Chabert grouped many separately 

 described diseases under the one head, considering them 



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