CHAPTER XXXVIII 

 BACILLUS ANTHRACIS AND ANTHRAX 



(Milzbrand, Charbon) 



ANTHRAX is primarily a disease of the hcrbivora, attacking 

 especially cattle and sheep. Infection not infrequently occurs in 

 horses, hogs, and goats. In other domestic animals it is exceptional. 

 Man is susceptible to the disease and contracts it either directly 

 from the living animals or from the hides, wool, or other parts of 

 the cadaver used in the industries. 



The history of the disease dates back to the most ancient periods 

 and anthrax has, at all times, been a severe scourge upon cattle- 

 and sheep-raising communities. Of all infections attacking the 

 domestic animals' no other has claimed so many victims as anthrax. 

 In Russia, where the disease is most 'common, 72,000 horses are said 

 to have succumbed in one year (1864). * 



In Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, and the Eastern countries, 

 each year thousands of animals and numerous human beings perish 

 of anthrax. In England and America the disease is relatively infre- 

 quent. No quarter of the globe, however, is entirely free from it. 



Especial historical interest attaches to the anthrax bacillus in 

 that it was the first microorganism proved definitely to bear a specific 

 etiological relationship to an infectious disease. The discovery of 

 the anthrax bacillus, therefore, laid, as it were, the cornerstone of 

 modern bacteriology. The bacillus was first observed in the blood 

 of infected animals by Pollender in 1849, and, independently, by 

 Brauell in 1857. Davaine, 2 however, in 1863, was the first one to 

 produce experimental infection in animals with blood containing 

 the bacilli and to suggest a direct etiological relationship between 

 the two. Final and absolute proof of the justice of Davaine 's con- 

 tentions, however, was not brought until the further development 

 of bacteriological technique, by Koch, 3 had made it possible for 



1 Quoted from Sobernheim, Kolle und Wassermann, vol. ii. 



2 Davaine, Comptes rend, de 1'acad. des. sci., Ivii, 1863. 

 *Koch, Cohn's "Beitr. z. Biol. d. Pflanzen," ii, 1876. 



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