CHAPTER IV. 

 SYMPTOMATIC ANTHRAX. 



k l SYMPTOMATIC ANTHRAX, ' ' charbon symptomatique, 

 Rauschbrand, "quarter- evil," and "black-leg" are the 

 various names applied to a peculiar disease of cattle com- 

 mon during the summer season in the Bavarian Alps, 

 Baden, Schleswig-Holstein, and some parts of the United 

 States, characterized by the occurrence of irregular, em- 

 physematous, crepitating subcutaneous pustules. Dis- 

 eased areas are also found in the muscles, and are most 

 common over the quarters, hence the name ' ' quarter- 

 evil." When incised the affected tissues have a dark 

 color and contain a dark, bloody serum. 



The micro-organismal nature of the disease had been 

 suspected from an early date, but until the work of 

 Faser and Bellinger the disease was confounded with 

 anthrax. Still later, Arloing, Thomas, Cornevin, and 

 Kitasato studied the disease, and succeeded in demon- 

 strating the specific micro-organism, which Kitasato 

 successfuly cultivated upon artificial media. 



The bacillus which the results of these labors brought 

 to light is a rather large individual (3-5 /j. in length, 

 0.5-0.6 fj- in breadth) with rounded ends. The bacilli 

 are occasionally united in twos, but are never united in 

 long chains (Fig. 70). They are actively motile (Thoinot 

 and Masselin say scarcely at all motile) when examined 

 in the hanging drop, but after a short time, perhaps 

 because of the exposure to the oxygen required in the 

 hanging-drop preparation, the movement is lost and the 

 bacilli die. When stained by L,6ffler's method a con- 

 siderable number of flagella can be demonstrated. Large 



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