218 VETERINARY LECTURES 



a capital burial-ground. The bottom of the grave should have a 

 layer of lime mixed with carbolic acid spread over it, and all the 

 bedding and other articles that may have been in contact with the 

 diseased beast should be put into the grave along with the carcass, 

 and then another layer of lime and carbolic acid spread on the top. 

 By far the best way for disposing of the carcass of an anthrax beast 

 is to burn it, and the bedding, also, and this method is now 

 generally adopted by the local authorities. 



327. It will thus be seen that the carcass of a dead animal should 

 on no account whatever be disturbed until the cause of death has 

 been ascertained ; nor ought any beast, when found to be very ill, 

 and apparently at the point of death, be slaughtered and dressed, as 

 is too frequently done, because if it be a case of anthrax it is extremely 

 dangerous to the men who take part in the work of skinning and 

 dressing, and at the same time it tends to spread the malady by 

 exposing the blood and flesh to the air, and thus favouring the 

 development of the spores or seeds of the disease, which can be 

 carried about on the clothes and shoes of the attendants, also on 

 the feet of dogs, cats, poultry, vermin, etc., into and amongst the 

 fodder and other feedingrstuffs ; it can also be conveyed by utensils 

 that may be lying about — these are considered to be the worst forms 

 of spreading the contagion. Foreign cakes and meals and other 

 feeding-stuffs, particularly those that have been damaged in transit, 

 aie looked upon with great suspicion, as are also foreign bones, hides, 

 and wools, the latter being considered as highly dangerous in con- 

 taminating the vessels and vehicles by which they are carried. It is, 

 in addition, recorded that the disease-producing spores are brought 

 from the dead carcass of an anthrax beast that has been buried some 

 years previously without any precautions being taken to disinfect the 

 body, and deposited on the ground in the worm-casts, and thus 

 contaminate the herbage. However, notwithstanding all these 

 theories, there is only one real cause of anthrax, and that is the 

 entrance into the body of a subject of the bacilli or their spores ; that 

 body must be, however, in such a condition as to favour the acceptance 

 and development of the disease-producing organisms, and this state 



