188 ANTHRAX. 



Again, that soils of certain characters have been credited 

 with the production of the poison is not extraordinary when 

 we think of the capabiHty of some of retaining moisture, and 

 of the organic richness, etc., of others. Results succeeding 

 the removal of these conditions, under a more rational and 

 improved system of agriculture and the employment of other 

 means calculated to lessen what were termed malarial emana- 

 tions, seem to confirm this view by showing a most marked 

 decline of the disease, which in the same districts, under the 

 former conditions, was very prevalent. Thus Buhl reports 

 that a form of anthrax, which raged for a long time in the 

 Neuhof stud, at Donansworth, ceased entirely after some 

 stagnating water, to which the animals had recourse, was 

 drawn off'. According to Wald, in many of the districts around 

 Potsdam, anthrax, which at one time had been common there, 

 gradually disappeared after the swampy land had been dried 

 by extensive improvements and drainage, and a suitable 

 outlet had been furnished for the stagnating water. We need 

 not, however, go to Germany or any part of the Continent 

 to seek for well-attested facts bearing on this point. In our 

 own country, probably easier than elsewhere, may facts of a 

 similar nature be gathered. I am acquainted with several 

 districts in the low-lying land of the Merse — the level plain of 

 Berwickshire, where the soil is clay and retentive — where half 

 a century since anthrax was one of the most common diseases 

 to which stock were liable ; but now, by adoption of a system 

 of thorough drainage, and by the clearing and deepening of the 

 larger watercourses, together with a generally improved system 

 of agriculture, the disease is comparatively rare. To a super- 

 ficial observer the decrease of anthrax in this and other 

 countries, by the adoption of means which are calculated to 

 remove malarial emanations, would seem to point to a certain 

 2^0 wer in the soil itself of originating and developing the 

 specific and inducing factor of disease ; but for the production 

 of anthrax proper, at least, we think we have sufficient 

 grounds for saying the presence of bacillus anthracis or its 

 germs is a sine qua non, as we should find it very difficult to 

 reconcile our minds to the fact that these living organisms, 

 which we can examine and cultivate, can come from an}^ other 

 than living organisms, themselves having an independent 



