CHAPTER XXVI. 



CONTAGIOUS DISEASES— continued. 



ANTHRAX. 



Anthrax ; charbon ; gloss-anthrax ; apoplexia splenetica ; car- 

 bunculo contagiosa, &c. (L.) ; charbon ; chancre k la langue ; mal 

 de sang ; sang de rate ; typhomife ; fi^vi'e putride, &c. (F.) ; miltz- 

 brand ; miltzbrand-fieber ; petechial typhus ; pestfieber (G.) ; 

 carbone ; febbre carbonculara, &c. (I.) ; apoplexy of the spleen ; 

 malignant sore throat ; known in India as Loodiana disease, and 

 in south Africa as horse sickness ; in sheep as splenic apoplexy ; 

 in America, splenic fever, Texan fever, trembles, &c. 



The term charbon is applied by the French veterinarians for 

 the reason that the regions of the body where the disease is 

 localized are coloured black. Anthrax (a burning coal) is 

 now adopted by most writers as a generic term, and applied 

 to what is otherwise known as splenic fever ; but it throws 

 no light on the nature of the disease, as others, septic and 

 putrefactive in their nature, present a similar appearance of 

 the blood. 



Definition. — The disease consists in a special and primitive 

 alteration in the blood, in which an organism termed the Bacillus 

 anthracis is rapidly developed and propagated, and is more special 

 to the herbivora and birds. Inoculation with the blood or tissue 

 of animals which have died from it induces some one or other 

 form of the disease, — in man, as a rule, malignant pustule. For 

 this reason anthrax is looked upon and described as a truly 

 contagious disease. 



Anthrax appears at all seasons, but principally in the spring 

 or during summer and autumn. It occurs either as a sporadic, 

 enzootic, or epizootic disease, attacking animals of any age — the 

 fat, vigorous, plethoric, as well as the lean, feeble, and languid. 



