INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF CATTLE. 417 



ing views to which there are of course dissenters. Aii attempt to give 

 the views of both sides on this question would necessitate the summa- 

 rizing and impartial discussion of all the experiments thus far made 

 a ta.sk entirely beyond the scope of the present work. 



Whether an animal affected with actinomycosis should be used for 

 human food after all diseased organs and tissues have been thoroughly 

 removed is a question the answer of which depends on a variety of 

 circumstances. Among these may be mentioned the thoroughness of 

 the meat inspection itself, which allows no really diseased animal to 

 pass muster, the extent of the disease, and the general condition of the 

 animal affected. If the vital organs have become involved, or if the 

 disease has become generalized, the condition of the animal will show 

 it. Animals seriously diseased and in which the general condition is 

 a fleeted should in all cases be condemned. Hard and fast lines it 

 would be impossible to draw in this as in some other diseases, and it 

 must be left to the skill of the inspector, reinforced by the knowledge 

 and practice of the entire civilized world and the advances constantly 

 made in our interpretation of disease, to settle the fitness or unfitness 

 of each case as it comes up. 



ANTHRAX. 



Anthrax or charbon may be defined as an infectious disease which is 

 caused by specific bacteria, known as anthrax bacilli, and which is 

 more or less restricted by conditions of soil and moisture to definite 

 geographical localities. While it is chiefly limited to cattle and sheep 

 it may be transmitted to goats, horses, and certain kinds of game. 

 Smaller animals, such as mice, rabbits, and guinea-pigs speedily succumb 

 to inoculation. Dogs and swine are nearly insusceptible. The variety 

 i.i domesticated animals which it may attack renders it oneof the most 

 Ireaded scourges of animal life. It may even attack man. Of this 

 more will be stated farther on. 



The cause of anthrax is a microscopic organism known as the anthrax 

 bacillus. (See Plate xxix, Fig. 7.) In form it is cylindrical or rod like, 

 measuring 3-^5 to f^ ff inch in length and jjj^jy inch in diameter. Like 

 all hactvria these rod like bodies have the power of indefinite multipli- 

 cation, and in the body of infected animals they produce death by rap- 

 idly increasing in numbers and prodneing substances which poison the 

 body. In the blood they multiply in number by becoming elongated and 

 then dividing into two, each new organism continuing the same process 

 indefinitely. Outside of the body, however, they multiply in a different 

 way when under conditions unfavorable to growth. Oval bodies ap- 

 pear within the rods which are called spores, and which remain alive 

 ami capable of germination after years of drying. They also resist 

 lit -at to a remarkable degree, so that boiling water is necessary to de- 

 stroy them. The bacilli themselves, on the other hand, show only very 

 24097 27 



