296 CONTAGIOUS DISEASES. 



The other form of charbonous fever in the sheep, not com- 

 monly met with in this country, but which seems common on 

 the Continent, is splenic apoplexy, the symptoms of which are 

 similar to those witnessed in the ox. Indeed it may be men- 

 tioned that the malady in all its forms may be accompanied by 

 splenic congestion. 



ESSENTIAL CHAR-BON, OR THAT ARISING FROM INOCULATION — 

 MALIGNANT PUSTULE (PUSTULA MALIGNA) IN MAN. 



Definition.- — Implanted on some uncovered part, the organism 

 produces in the first instance a redness like the bite of a gnat, 

 and afterwards a minute vesicle. A peculiar form of gangrenous 

 inliammation is excited, which rapidly spreads from the point 

 first affected to the neighbouriug tissues. Hardening and 

 blackening of the part is so extreme, and death of the tissue is 

 so entire, that the part cracks when cut with a knife. No pain 

 attends the incisions ; crops of secondary vesicles form round an 

 erysipelatous-like areola, chains of lymphatics become inflamed, 

 the breath foetid, and death follows, amid all the indications of 

 septic poisoning." — (Dr. Wm. Budd.) 



Such is the disease in man, and its identity with charbon has 

 been satisfactorily proved by the fact that, when contracted by 

 man, it has been communicated by inoculation to the lower 

 animals. Malignant pustule in man is concurrent with charbon 

 in cattle, &c., and is a result of direct inoculation. Other cases 

 occur in which the exact vehicle of the poison cannot be identi- 

 fied, but these cases have all this significant peculiarity, that the 

 disease is always seated on some part of the person icliieh is 

 habitually uncovered. — (Aitken.) 



Propagation. — The disease may be communicated to man in the 

 following ways : — By direct inoculation, as in the case of butchers 

 and others employed to skin the carcases of animals which have 

 died of charbon, the poison finding access by means of the skin 

 or hands or arms of the operators ; by means of the skin or 

 hair of animals dead of charbon ; and there are many ex- 

 amples related by Dr. Budd which clearly prove that the virus, 

 when once in a dried state, may retain its virulence for an inde- 

 finite period of time. Trousseau relates that in two factories 

 for working up horse hair imported from Buenos Ayres, and in 



