(C) THE BACTEREMIAS. 



CHAPTER I. 



ANTHRAX. 



BACILLUS ANTHRACIS. 



General Characteristics. A non-motile, non-flagellated, spor- 

 ogenous, liquefying, non-chromogenic, pathogenic, aerobic bacillus 

 staining by the ordinary methods and by Gram's method. 



The disease of cattle known as anthrax, "splenic fever," 

 "Milzbrand" and "charbon," of infrequent occurrence in 

 this country and England, is a dreaded and common malady 

 in France, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Persia, and the 

 East Indian countries. In Siberia the disease is so common 

 and malignant as to deserve its popular name "Siberian 

 pest." Certain districts, as the Tyrol and Auvergne, in 

 which it seems to be endemic, serve as foci from which the 

 disease spreads in summer, afflicting many animals, and 

 ceasing its depredations only with the advent of winter. It 

 is not rare in the United States, where it seems to be chiefly 

 a disease of the summer season. 



The animals most frequently affected are cows and sheep. 

 Among laboratory animals white mice, house-mice, guinea- 

 pigs, and rabbits are highly susceptible; dogs, cats, most 

 birds, and amphibians are immune. White rats are infected 

 with difficulty. Man is. slightly susceptible, the disease in 

 the human species usually being a local affection, "malig- 

 nant carbuncle," commonly succeeded by a general fatal 

 infection. 



Anthrax was one of the first infectious diseases proved to 

 depend upon a specific micro-organism. As early as 1849 

 Pollender * discovered small rod-shaped bodies in the blood 

 of animals suffering from anthrax, but the exact relation 

 which they bore to the disease was not pointed out until 

 1863, when Davaine,f by a series of interesting experiments, 



* " Vierteljahrsschr. fur ger. Med.," Bd. vm, 1855 

 f "Compte-rendu," 57, 59-61, 77. 

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