180 ANTHRAX. • 



several manifestations of the same. About this time Fournier, 

 Bertin, Montfils, and others, sought to demonstrate its power 

 of propagation by contagion, though soon Kansch disputed 

 this, and enunciated a theory which attributed the disease to 

 paralysis of the pneumogastric nerve. In the role of observers 

 we can scarcely forbear mention, as prominent among a large 

 field, of Larry (1811), Remer (1814), Greve (1818), Hoffmann 

 (1830), and Delafond (1843) — whose experiments, principally 

 with sheep, induced him to deny its contagious nature, and to 

 attribute it to condition of locality, soil, and dietetic errors ; 

 Gerlach (1845) — who, by direct experiment, proved its conta- 

 gious nature, and concluded it was a form of septicsemia. In 

 1850 Heusinger, as the result of his investigations, wrote of it 

 as a malarial neurosis of the ganghonic system, in which the 

 nerves of the spleen were first paralyzed, then followed by death 

 of the tissue; hence the name, Milzbrand, inflammatory death 

 of the spleen. After this there are circumscribed extravasations 

 due to local paralysis in different organs, and death of tissue 

 in patches. Further, that in the disease a poison was developed 

 which had the power of conveying its specific effects to men 

 and animals ; concluding that the different manifestations in 

 these are essentially those of the same malady. He asserted 

 that the disease is primarily developed in herbivorous mam- 

 mals. Virchow, writing in 1855, confirms these views regarding 

 the cause as some ' specific ferment.' 



In 1855 Pollender started a fresh epoch in the history of 

 medical science, for, in connection with anthrax, he actually 

 demonstrated countless masses of rod-like bodies, to the class 

 of which is now relegated so important a part in the aetiology 

 of diseases of this order. From their micro-chemical behaviour 

 he placed them in the vegetable kingdom. 



In 1857 Brauell, experimenting with the blood of sheep, 

 arrived at similar results, and regarded the existence of the 

 rods which he found during life as diagnostic ; though from 

 the fact of his producing the disease with blood in Avhich 

 these bodies did not exist, he concluded that these were 

 neither the cause nor the carriers of the cause of the malady. 

 He also found that they appeared in the blood only a few 

 hours, or less, before death. He was of course unaware of the 

 spore-bearing nature of the organism. 



