190 ANTHRAX. 



anthrax, and been buried ten or twelve months before, Hterally 

 teeming with spores. And, as we have noticed before, dogs, 

 crows, and other carnivorous creatures become distributors of 

 the disease by bringing parts of affected carcases and deposit- 

 ing them in previously healthy situations. 



Though it would seem, from the history of the disease, that 

 the most fruitful mode of contagion is inoculation at the 

 particular place where animals have died, been slaughtered, or 

 buried, it is yet sufficiently well established that the poison 

 generated in the diseased may by healthy men and animals be 

 carried and implanted in others which may become mortally 

 affected. Gerlach reports the transmission of anthrax by dogs 

 as inoculators. A¥hen shepherds' dogs are called away from de- 

 vouring anthrax carcases and are used in Avorking the healthy 

 sheep, some are bitten, and perish of anthrax very quickly. 



Davaine was early in pointing out that flies which had been 

 feeding on blood of animals which died of charbon possessed 

 in their proboscides material which on inoculation gave posi- 

 tive results. Bollinger in 1873, in the viscera of flies removed 

 from the carcase of a charbonous ox, demonstrated the pre- 

 sence of the characteristic bacilli, and by introducing them 

 into the system of rabbits produced well-marked anthrax. 



We are conversant with several cases where shepherds who 

 have removed the skins from animals dead of anthrax have a 

 week afterwards conveyed the disease to other healthy animals ; 

 and to show the extreme care and inquisitiveness which is 

 required in investigating the processes involved in the disease, 

 I may be excused for mentioning a case among sheep which 

 occurred within my own practice. 



In two instances the original cases were acute charbon in 

 sheep, with local swellings in the region of the throat and 

 tongue. After having removed the skins from the dead 

 animals the carcases were buried, and nothing further thought 

 of the matter. Some eight or ten days elapsed, and the indi- 

 vidual who skinned the sheep took his part in the annual 

 shearing, which lasted some days. Daily serious losses 

 occurred among the shorn sheep, and Ave Avere called in pro- 

 fessionally, to find the carcases and the dying presenting positi\'e 

 indications of anthrax. Knowing that in most labour exe- 

 cuted by the hand there is some individual peculiarity attach- 



