78 ANTHRAX 



No longer the lion's roar is heard ; 

 The shaggy bear has lost her rage, 

 And the lurking serpent his deadly sting; 

 For parched and dying now he lies 

 With venom dried. 



Another classical description is given by Ovid (Metam. vii). Pliny 

 (Hist. Nat. Lib. xxvi) says: 



We find it stated in the annals, that it was in the censorship of L. Paulus 

 and Q. Marcius (164 A. D.) that carbuncle was first introduced into Italy, a 

 malady which till then had confined itself to the province of Gallia Narbonensis 

 (now Provence). In the year in which I am now writing these lines two per- 

 sons of consular rank have died of this disease ; Julius Rufus and Q. Lecanius 

 Bassus; the former in consequence of an incision unskillfully made by his 

 medical attendant, the latter through a wound upon the thumb of the left hand 

 by pricking a carbuncle with a needle, a wound so small originally as to be 

 hardly perceptible. 



Arabian physicians described anthrax as Persian fever. In the 

 ninth and tenth centuries the disease was widely disseminated over 

 Europe. In the years 1375-76 it is reported that even wild animals 

 died of anthrax. According to Kircher in 1617 most of the domestic 

 animals and 60,000 people died of this disease. It continued to be 

 widely prevalent in Europe down to the time of scientific medicine 

 and isolated epidemics still occur. In the sixties of the last century 

 an outbreak in Russia was investigated by a German commission and 

 reported as anthrax. From 1864 to 1870 in the province of Novgorod 

 more than 65,000 domestic animals (horses, cattle and sheep) and 

 528 people succumbed to this infection. It has been extensively 

 disseminated in South America, especially in Brazil, where it is known 

 as "Garotilha." It is well established in Australia where it has inter- 

 fered greatly with sheep raising. It has found its way into most parts 

 of Asia and Africa. In our own country it has appeared only as local 

 epidemics among cattle and isolated cases among men, known as wool- 

 sorter's disease and malignant pustule. Sobernheim gave the total 

 number of deaths from this disease among cattle, horses, sheep and 

 goats in Germany from 1900 to 1909 inclusive as 55,410. 



Since anthrax is the most typically infectious of all diseases, and 

 since so many theories have been evolved concerning it, we may be 

 pardoned for briefly reviewing the literature. As early as 1805 



