" Anthrax and Anthracoid Diseases" by Principal Williams of 

 the New Veterinary College, Edinburgh, which appeared in 

 the Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of 

 Scotland for 1888 : 



" Definition. -The disease consists in a special and pri- 

 mitive alteration in the blood, in which an organism termed 

 the Bacillus anthracis is rapidly developed and propagated, 

 and is more special to the herbivora and birds. Inoculation 

 with the blood or tissue of animals which have died from it 

 induces, both in man and other animals, a malignant form of 

 inflammation called malignant pustule. For this reason 

 anthrax is looked upon, and described, as a truly contagious 

 disease. 



" Observers who have closely watched these affections 

 in this country, where it seldom appears in the horse, 

 almost unanimously conclude that in cattle and sheep they 

 are due to dietetic errors ; more particularly to sudden and 

 violent changes in diet, whether that change be from a poor 

 to a highly nutritious, more particularly a nitrogenous diet ; 

 from dry and good food, to watery, unripe provender, to 

 damaged food of any kind ; the influence of undrained lands ; 

 defective ventilation and drainage of stables ; to food and 

 water contaminated with the morbid product of animals 



which have died of blood disease Anthrax is also 



disseminated through the agency of flies The flies, 



however, resist the influence of the virus although bacteridae 

 are found in them. 



t( The bacilli are not always found in the blood of living 

 animals suffering from the disease ; indeed, they generally 

 appear a few hours before death (which seldom takes place 

 in less than twenty hours), and then only singly and in very 

 small numbers. Even after death they cannot always be 

 found in the blood, but always in the spleen. 



