202 INFECTIVE DISEASES. 



If an animal has died in a meadow, a pit six feet deep should 

 be dug close to the carcass, and if quicklime can be procured with- 

 out delay the carcass should be buried with a layer about a foot in 

 depth beneath it and with about the same quantity to cover it, and 

 the pit filled up with the excavated soil. 



If there are any traces of blood where the animal lay, the 

 contaminated ground should be covered with quicklime or drenched 

 with strong carbolic acid, and the whole of the site of burial fenced 

 off for six months. If an animal dies near a brook or stream then 

 the carcass must be removed for burial to a sufficient distance to 

 prevent any reasonable probability of contamination of the water. 



If death has occurred in the byre, the carcass must be removed 

 to the nearest and most convenient spot for burial, any fodder or 

 litter which may have been in contact with the deceased animal must 

 be destroyed, and the shed and cart and any utensils, hurdles, etc., 

 disinfected. For the latter purpose thorough scouring with water 

 and then washing with limewash is recommended. The limewash 

 should be prepared immediately before use, and four ounces of 

 chloride of lime, or half a pint of commercial carbolic acid, be added 

 to each gallon of limewash. 



The following is an illustration of the value of preventive 

 measures based upon a knowledge of the exact nature of the disease. 

 A farm on the banks of the Yeo was repeatedly attacked by 

 anthrax. One morning two sheep died, and other cases followed. 

 The farmer learnt that his predecessor had buried cattle which had 

 died of anthrax on the very spot where the sheep were folded. He 

 removed his flock, and had no further losses among the sheep, but 

 he continued to lose cattle grazing in the pastures by the river. 

 These pastures were occasionally flooded by the Yeo. Another 

 farmer in the same locality heavily manured a field, and shortly 

 afterwards anthrax broke out in a most deadly form on his farm. 



What was the cause of these mysterious outbreaks ? The 

 explanation was forthcoming, and prevention an easy matter. The 

 river Yeo received the washings from the wool factories at Yeovil, 

 and the pastures were contaminated by anthrax spores in the 

 deposit which was left behind when the flood subsided. In the 

 second instance, it was found that the manure used for dressing 

 the pasture consisted of a quantity of refuse from the wool factories. 



Infected wool from foreign countries is one of the principal 

 sources of the disease in this country, and the remedy is to insist 

 upon the factories destroying their refuse instead of its being 

 allowed to contaminate, the rivers or to be sold as manure. 



