138 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



doubtless bring forth still more research, and our readers will be eager to watch 

 for the results of renewed and prolonged investigation. For our own part we 

 believe Mr. Power's and Dr. Klein's work is thoroughly established, and we 

 must here again insist upon the advantage of having all milk boiled before 

 consumption, since this precaution will, there is good reason to believe, insure 

 absolute safety against all the ordinary contagions of which milk may be the 

 carrier ; and, as we do not consume other kinds of animal food withou.t cookery, 

 there is nothing remarkable in cooking milk as well as flesh. There is, more- 

 over, one point of Professor Brown's report with which we are in complete 

 accord — that, namely, in which he refers to the filthiness of many dairies, and 

 the necessity which exists for the precautions which are voluntarily taken by 

 some milk-sellers being enforced by law upon those by whom they ai-e as yet 

 neglected. 



Now, in reference to anthrax, more usually known when 

 afflicting human beings as woolsorters' disease or as malignant 

 pustule, it is well known that rod-like bodies swarm in the blood 



\ ^ 



Fig. 15. — Heart's Blood of a Mouse Dead of Anthrax. 1. Blood 

 Discs. 2, White blood-corpuscle. 3. Bacilli anthracis. Magnifying power 

 700. (Fresh specimen.) — After Klein. 



of sufferers from this dreadful scourge, whether they be animals 

 or human beings. The different varieties of micro-organisms 

 require various definite conditions for their growth, development, 

 and multiplication. In very many cases damp and wet are asso- 

 ciated with putrefactive changes, that is, with the decay of lifeless 

 organic material, both vegetal and animal. This putrefaction 

 or decay really depends upon the vital processes of certain micro- 

 organisms. It is, moreover, by no means difficult to see how 

 an animal, already suffering and debilitated in consequence of 

 the more direct results of damp and cold^ and partially famished 

 owing to the lack of nutrient material, may readily fall a prey 

 to the insidious attacks of these minute and rapidly-multiplying 

 organisms. They may enter the body by means of the lungs or 

 the alimentary canal or may gain access to the blood through 



