CHAPTER XIX. 

 OTHER GERM DISEASES. 



ANTHRAX OR SPLENIC FEVER. 



Anthrax is a disease of domestic animals which has been known 

 for centuries. It is mentioned in the writings of Moses, and Homer 

 refers to it in the Iliad. It occurs practically all over the globe, in 

 all latitudes where cattle are kept, and seems to be entirely independ- 

 ent of climate. Every country of Europe suffers from it. Germany 

 has lost some 4,000 cattle from this disease in some years and 

 England nearly a thousand. In the United States the disease 

 is also frequent, though generally regarded as less common than 

 in Europe. Although widespread, it does not occur in great numbers 

 of cattle as do some of the other bacterial diseases. It may attack 

 the animals of a single herd and produce much destruction, but it is 

 not very contagious and does not readily spread from herd to herd. 



Cattle and sheep are the only animals in which it normally 

 occurs as a spontaneous infection. Many other animals are, 

 however, capable of infection with it. Horses, goats, deer and mice 

 are very subject to the disease, while dogs, cats and white rats are not 

 susceptible. The disease is also found in man, and is then known 

 by various names, the most common being malignant pustule. 

 Mankind is, however, not one of the very susceptible animals and, 

 when infected by a skin inoculation, the disease is quite apt to ^c 

 local, while in sheep and cattle it is almost sure to run a fat , course. 



Cause. The discovery of the cause of this disease was one of 

 the first triumphs of bacteriology. Its exciting cause is a bacterium, 

 Bact. anthracis, which, though first seen in 1849, was not rea ^y 

 demonstrated as the cause of the disease until 1875, by the work of 

 Koch, and shortly afterward by Pasteur (Fig. 52). After some 

 twenty-four years of dispute the final demonstration was due to 



280 



