GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 181 



At this period of the history of anthrax the nature of these 

 bodies absorbed a large share of attention from many biologists 

 and pathologists, being variously considered living organisms, 

 shreds of fibrine, blood-crystals, etc. 



In 1863 Davaine, who studied the subject with much pains 

 and precision, first named them Baderidia to distinguish them 

 from bacteria of putrefaction, whose presence he demonstrated 

 were destructive to the rod-like bodies of anthrax, which he 

 maintained were the true contagia of the disease. 



Since this date many foreign and British investigators have 

 pursued, with notable success, investigations into the life- 

 history and pathological significance of this organism, now 

 generally regarded as a vegetable and a schizomycete. 



Geographical Distribution.— Among the diseases of animals 

 the geographical distribution of anthrax is unique, for in one or 

 other of its varied forms it is encountered wherever animals 

 are found. The regions of the northern or southern latitudes 

 are no more exempt from its ravages than are the temperate 

 or equatorial zones. It appears as an ej^izooty among the 

 herds of the Laplander — as such the Russian too well knows 

 the deadly Jasiva — and as an epidemic and epizooty among 

 men and animals over the vast plains of Siberia, where it is 

 spoken of as ' Siberian Plague.' Neither do the great upland 

 deserts of central Asia escape its visits, and as Loodiana 

 Disease it is well enough known amongst horses over central 

 Hindostan. The great Australian stock-owner dreads the 

 havoc of the scourging ' Cumberland Disease,' while it is not 

 unknown on the wide pampas of the South American Republics, 

 nor on the rolling prairies of the great Western State of the 

 northern continent. While.from the descriptions of the ailments 

 to which animals are subject, it seems to be as well known, if 

 not so frequently recognised, in the fertile valleys and plateaux 

 of southern and central Africa, where our acquaintance 

 with it as ' Cape Horse Sickness ' is intimate, as it is over 

 the central plains and river-basins of middle and western 

 Europe. 



Although certain conditions, geographical, thermal, meteoro- 

 logical, and those dependent on the character and quality of 

 soil and subsoil, may to some extent influence the develop- 

 ment and spread of anthrax, even in virtue of these it cannot 



