220 ANTHRAX. 



had most experience in this matter certainly express unbounded 

 confidence in its ultimate success. 



The effect'of oxygen in the attenuation of the bacillus should 

 also not be lost sight of, and should prove an incentive to im- 

 proved ventilation. 



Added to the treatment of our patients, it Avill be our func- 

 tion to advise our client as to the communicability of the 

 disease to the human being, and to impress on him the facility 

 with which anthrax may prove a source of fatality among his 

 family or dependents, as well as among his other than equine 

 stock. 



LooDiANAH Disease and Cape Horse-sickness. 



If in the British Isles in our day anthrax, as appearing in 

 horses, is a rather rare disease, in two of our colonies — India 

 and South Africa — it is of common occurrence. In the former 

 known as Loodianah Disease, and in the latter as Horse-sick- 

 ness, it is frequent and fatal, both in epizootic, enzootic, and 

 sporadic forms. 



Loodianah Disease — now clearly demonstrated to be a form 

 of anthrax, and connected with the presence of bacillus an- 

 thracis in the blood — took its name from the fact of a mem- 

 orable outbreak occurring among the horses of a battery of 

 Horse Artillery at Loodianah, in 1841. Known under that 

 name since, it has been a source of great annoyance to owners 

 of horses in India. Behaving as we described to be character- 

 istic of anthrax, and generally known throughout the em- 

 pire, it is much more commonly met with in low-lying, damp 

 situations, though cases have been reported at an altitude of 

 7,000 feet. Showing a preference for attacking the plethoric, 

 it at times spares animals in no appreciably special state of 

 system. Outbreaks have been ordinarily noticed a short time 

 after rain, when the surface-water has been evaporated or 

 absorbed. 



Grass — considering the source from which it is usually de- 

 rived, and the manner in which it is offered as food to the 

 horses (having a good deal of earth attached) — is by some, 

 who have had practical experience with the disease, thought 

 to be a frequent bearer of the contagium ; while drmking- 

 water can be scarcely less important in this point of view. In- 



