122 THE DISEASES OF DOMESTIC AXIMALS. 



Man acquires the disease — 



1. By direct inoculation. That is, persons acquire the disease 

 whose occupations bring them in direct relation either with anthrax- 

 diseased animals or their products. 



The most dangerous procedures are phlebotomy, slaughtering, 

 and skinning diseased animals. The infection is in general external, 

 and we can generally find some wound or excoriation which made 

 the atrium to infection. 



2. By the consumption of the flesh of diseased animals. Exco- 

 riations or wounds along the whole extent of the digestive tract 

 may be atria of the disease. 



This form of infection is veiy rare, but a sufficient number 

 of well-constituted cases have been recorded, many of them termi- 

 nating fatally, to make the consumption of such flesh a forbidden 

 article of food. 



3. By means of flies and insects. Cases of this kind of infection 

 have been far more numerous than the former. 



4. Infection from man to man has been observed, but few 

 cases have been recorded, however. 



Those parts of the body upon which infection has primarily 

 taken place are generally the uncovered (84 per cent, Yirchow), such 

 as the face, lower arm, hands and fingers, and neck ; or, in other 

 words, infection takes place most frequently in those parts naturally 

 exposed to contact with infected material. 



Summed up, we may say : Anthrax occurs most frequently in 

 man in those places where it prevails to the greatest extent among 

 animals, and among those whose manner of life brings them more 

 or less intimately into relation with the diseased animals or their 

 products — such as those employed at tanneries, wool-pulling estab- 

 lishments, and horse-hair factories. 



The susceptibility to infection is less in man than in the larger 

 domestic animals. 



Man enjoys no immunity to secondary infection from having 

 once had the disease. 



(This seems to stand in more or less direct contradiction to the 

 experimental results obtained by Pasteur and others.) 



Symptoms and Course. 



We will not go into detail, but shall simply consider the chief 

 primary symptoms, such as we should observe in a groom, or a per- 

 son in whom infection would be likely to take place, for the treat- 

 ment of the disease is such that an accomplished veterinarian might 



