308 THE DISEASES OP SHEEP. 



CARBUNCULAR FEVER (ANTHRAX), 



Is caused, says AValley, by a minute, staff-like organism, 

 termed, from its shape, a bacillus, and belonging to the 

 class of fission (generative) fungi. It is, on the whole, 

 the largest of this class of fungi found in animals, and 

 in the blood, streams and tissues multiplies only by fission ; 

 but when cultivated in proper media, or, what is of more 

 importance to farmers, when it gains access to suitable 

 soils, it multiplies rapidly by spores, which by various 

 agencies find their way on to vegetables grown on such 

 soils and into drinking water, and produce the disease in 

 other animals that may partake of the contaminated food 

 and water. 



These organisms, and particularly their spores, possess 

 a wonderful vitality, and retain their destructive proper- 

 ties for a very considerable period in the earth. Hence 

 the necessity of utterly destroying every part of the car- 

 cass, the blood, and internal organs of animals which 

 have died of the disease. 



The disease is communicable to man, and is known un- 

 der various designations in many parts of the world. 

 There is reason to believe that it may be disseminated by 

 artificial manures, and sometimes even by artificial food, 

 as it often appears in situations where it has never been 

 seen before. 



Anthrax, which, owing to the dark color of the local 

 lesions, is compared to a burning coal, is the most deadly 

 disease of its class. So-called ' red braxy ' is often noth- 

 ing more or less than anthrax. 



' Black-leg ' is a disease somewhat allied to anthrax, but 

 the organism that produces it is of a rather different 

 character, and it is much less virulent. 



Remedy. — Free scarification of limited external swell- 

 ings and introduction of antiseptics seem to arrest some 

 slight cases. Intra-venous injection of virus usually in- 



