THE SPORE-BEARING RODS 355 



slightly more resistant. In most cases these animals will 

 die from the result of infection in from 24 to 48 hours. 

 Dogs and cats are somewhat less susceptible. Cold-blooded 

 animals are refractory. Fowls are relatively immune. 



Anthrax in cattle is usually marked by acute fever with 

 not many external symptoms. Difficulty in respiration, 

 bloody urine, and bloody discharges from the various body 

 openings is common. The disease is usually fatal, the ani- 

 mal dying within a short time after the first visible symp- 

 tom. Sheep are quite susceptible and the disease proves 

 fatal very quickly. Horses having the disease in acute form 

 also die within a few days. Occasionally in the horse, 

 infection will occur through the skin and lead to the devel- 

 opment of a so-called malignant carbuncle. Swine are 

 somewhat more resistant and carbuncles and localized 

 glandular infections are more common. 



Anthrax in man is varied in character, dependent upon 

 the method of infection. The so-called woolsorter's disease 

 is a pulmonary infection with anthrax resulting from the 

 breathing in of the spores by those who handle pelts from 

 sheep which have died of this disease. This type of disease 

 is always fatal. Cutaneous, or skin anthrax or malignant 

 carbuncle is the more common infection in man. Such 

 infection may result from contact with animals having the 

 disease and has appeared repeatedly among those who 

 handle hides, particularly hides which have not been ade- 

 quately disinfected. During the great war there were many 

 cases of anthrax in the army, both British and American, 

 due to anthrax spores on shaving brush bristles. Apparently 

 the horse hairs used for shaving brush manufacturers were 

 secured from China and had not been adequately sterilized 

 to insure the destruction of the anthrax spores which were 

 present. The lesion at first resembles a boil, but the tissues 

 round it soon begin to show infiltration, and not infre- 

 quently invasion of the blood and death from septicemia 



