CHAPTER IX 

 THE ANTHRAX PROTEIN 1 



Literature. Since anthrax is the most typically infec- 

 tious of all diseases, and since so many theories have been 

 evolved concerning it, we may be pardoned for briefly 

 reviewing the literature. As early as 1805 Kausch 2 wrote 

 a monograph on this disease in which he held that it is 

 due to paralysis of the nerves of respiration; but he offered 

 no explanation of the paralysis. Delafond 3 held that 

 anthrax has its origin in the influence of the chemical 

 composition of the soil on the food, thus inducing patho- 

 logical changes from malnutrition. The contagious nature 

 of the disease was clearly established in 1845 by Gerlach. 4 

 This was confirmed by the studies of Heuzinger, 5 and was 

 endorsed by Virchow in 1855, since which time it has never 

 been questioned. However, as early as 1849 the bacilli 

 had been seen by Pollender. 6 Pollender did not publish his 

 observations until 1855, but he states that they were made 

 in the fall of 1849. First, he examined the blood of five 

 cows dead from anthrax, and compared this with material 

 taken from the spleen of a healthy animal. The examina- 

 tions were not made until from eighteen to twenty-four 

 hours after death, and he states that the blood was stinking, 

 thus indicating that it had become contaminated with 

 putrefactive organisms, but the description which he gives 



1 The first part of this chapter is abstracted from a paper by J. Walter 

 Vaughan, published in the Trans. Assoc. Amer. Phys., 1902, xvii, 313. 



2 Ueber der Milzbrand des Rindviehes. 



3 Traite sur la Maladie du Sang des Betes a laine, 1843. 



4 Magazin f. Thierheilkunde. 



6 Die Milzbrandkrankheiten der Thieren und der Menschen. 

 6 Vierteljahresschrift f. gerichtliche Medicin, 1855, viii, 103. 



