192 ANTHRAX. 



And we are acquainted with another instance in which a 

 bone from an animal which had died of anthrax, by abraiding 

 the tongue of an ox which had taken it into its mouth with 

 food, appeared to be the cause of mahgnant glossanthrax. 



Other bearers of the contagion are of course very numerous, 

 and such articles as harness worn by the diseased animals, or, 

 indeed, anything connected with their management in or out 

 of the stable, which by contact with secretions, etc., of the 

 diseased have become contaminated. Fodder of every descrip- 

 tion may be the medium by which the poison is conveyed to 

 its host, as may be water also. The former, particularly when 

 grown upon lands where anthrax carcases or offal have been 

 deposited, can scarcely fail to be a common ' form of convey- 

 ance. At the present time there are several attempts to intro- 

 duce into this country as bedding for our animals moss from 

 Germany, and we shall look with some curiosity to the effect 

 of this material on health, since, considering the situations in 

 which moss is usually found, we think there is just a possi- 

 bility of this proving a source of anthrax-production, a quality 

 which has by some been attributed to artificial manures. 



That water must afford many facilities for the distribution of 

 the contagious principle we are quite convinced. Percolating 

 through the soil, it carries with it the disease-germs and dis- 

 tributes them in various manners — both by drinking-water and 

 by deposition in situations with which actual anthrax material 

 had not before come into contact. Nearly twenty years since, on 

 a small farm in the low-lying lands of Berwickshire, where only 

 eight horses were kept, I witnessed the death of six in two 

 years, all from that form of anthrax known as carbuncular fever. 

 Believing the disease had a direct and intimate connection 

 with the existence of a stagnant pool of water close to and a 

 little more elevated than the stables where the horses stood 

 and Avhere they all died, I obtained, after persuasion, the 

 removal of the pool, since which I have seen no disease 

 amongst the stock of this farm having any resemblance to 

 anthrax. 



That the atmosphere may transfer the minute spores, or even 

 bacilli, from the diseased to the healthy, and that they may 

 gain the circulation through the air-passages, there seems 

 every probability ; though to our knowledge this has not been 



