CHAPTER XL 



BACILLUS ANTHRACIS AND ANTHRAX 

 (Milzbrand, Charbon) 



ANTHRAX is primarily a disease of the herbivora, attacking especially 

 cattle and sheep. Infection not infrequently occurs in horses, hogs, and 

 goats. In other domestic animals it is exceptional. Man is susceptible to 

 the disease and contracts it either directly from the living animals or 

 from the hides, wool, or other parts of the cadaver used in the industries. 



The history of the disease dates back to the most ancient periods and 

 anthrax has, at all times, been a severe scourge upon cattle- and sheep- 

 raising communities. Of all infections attacking the domestic animals 

 no other has claimed so many victims as anthrax. In Russia, where 

 the disease is most common, 72,000 horses are said to have succumbed 

 in one year (1864). 1 



In Austro-Hungary, Germany, France, and the Eastern countries, 

 each year thousands of animals and numerous human beings perish of 

 anthrax. In England and America the disease is relatively infrequent. 

 No quarter of the globe, however, is entirely free from it. 



Especial historical interest attaches to the anthrax bacillus in that 

 it was the first microorganism proved definitely to bear a specific etio- 

 logical relationship to an infectious disease. The discovery of the an- 

 thrax bacillus, therefore, laid, as it were, the cornerstone of modern 

 bacteriology. The bacillus was first observed in the blood of infected 

 animals by Pollender in 1849, and, independently, by Brauell in 1857. 

 Davaine, 2 however, in 1863, was the first one to produce experimental 

 infection in animals with blood containing the bacilli and to suggest 

 a direct etiological relationship between the two. Final and absolute 

 proof of the justice of Davaine's contentions, however, was not brought 

 until the further development of bacteriological technique, by Koch, 3 

 had made it possible for this last observer to isolate the bacillus upon 



1 Quoted from Sobernheim, Kolle und Wassermann., vol. ii. 

 * Davaine, Comptes rend, de 1'acad. des sci., Ivii, 1863. 

 Koch, Cohn's " Beitr. z. Biol. d. Pflanzen," ii, 1876. 

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