296 DISEASES OF CATTLE, SHEEP, GOATS, ETC. 



is not positively known. It may be that during and immediately 

 after inundations or in stagnant water the bacilli find enough nour- 

 ishment in the water here and there to multiply and produce an 

 abundant crop of spores, which are subsequently carried, in a dry 

 condition, by the winds during the period of drought and dissemin- 

 ated over the vegetation. Animals feeding upon this vegetation 

 may contract the disease if the spores germinate in the body. 



Another source of the virus, and one regarded by many au- 

 thorities as perhaps the most important, is the body of an animal 

 which has died of anthrax. It will be remembered that in such 

 bodies the anthrax bacilli are present in enormous numbers, and 

 wherever blood or other body fluids are exposed to the air on the 

 surface of the carcass there the formation of spores will go on in the 

 warm season of the year with great rapidity. It will thus be 

 readily understood how this disease may become stationary in a 

 given locality and appear year after year and even grow in severity 

 if the carcasses of animals which have succumbed to it are not 

 properly disposed of. These should be buried deeply, so that spore 

 formation may be prevented and no animal have access to them. 

 By exercising this precaution the disease will not be disseminated by 

 flies and other insect pests. 



We have thus two agents at work in maintaining the disease in 

 any locality the soil and meteorological conditions and the car- 

 casses of animals that have died of the disease. Besides these dan- 

 gers, which are of immediate consequence to cattle on pastures, the 

 virus may be carried from place to place in hides, hair, wool, hoofs, 

 and horns, and it may be stored in the hay or other fodder from the 

 infected fields and cause an outbreak among stabled animals feed- 

 ing upon it in winter. In this manner the affection has been in- 

 troduced into far distant localities. 



How Cattle Are Infected. We> have seen above that the spores 

 of the anthrax bacilli, which correspond in their functions to the 

 seeds of higher plants, and which are the elements that resist the 

 unfavorable conditions in the soil, air, and water longest, are the 

 chief agents of infection. They may be taken into the body with 

 the food and produce disease which begins in the intestinal tract; 

 or they may come in contact with scratches, bites, or other wounds 

 of the skin, the mouth, and tongue, and produce in these situations 

 swellings or carbuncles. From such swellings the bacilli penetrate 

 into the blood and produce a general disease. 



It has likewise been claimed that the disease may be trans- 

 mitted by various kinds of insects which carry the bacilli from the 

 sick and inoculate the healthy as they pierce the skin. When in- 

 fection of the blood takes place from the intestines the carbuncles 

 may be absent. It has already been stated that since the anthrax 

 spores live for several years, the disease may be contracted in winter 

 from food gathered on permanently infected fields. 



The disease may appear sporadically, i. e., only one or several 

 animals may be infected while the rest of the herd remain well, or 



