INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF CATTLE. 419 



How cattle arc infected. We have seen above that the spores of the 

 anthrax bacilli, which correspond in their functions to the seeds of higher 

 plants, and which are the elements that resist the unfavorable conditions 

 in the soil, air, and water longest, are the chief agents of infection. They 

 may be taken into the body with the food and produce disease which 

 begins in the intestinal tract; or they may come in contact with 

 scratches, bites, or other wounds of the "skin, the mouth, and tongue, 

 and produce in these situations swellings or carbuncles. From such 

 swellings the bacilli penetrate into the blood and produce a general 

 disease. 



It has likewise been claimed that the disease may be transmitted by 

 various kinds of insects which carry the bacilli from the sick and inoc- 

 ulate the healthy as they pierce the skin. When infection of the blood 

 takes place from the intestines the carbuncles may be absent. It has 

 already been stated that since the anthrax spores live for several years 

 the disease may be contracted in winter from food gathered on per- 

 manently infected fields. 



The disease may appear sporadically, i. e., only one or several ani- 

 mals may be infected while the rest of the herd remain well, or it may 

 appear as an epizootic attacking a large number at about the same 

 time. 



Xyniptoms. The symptoms in cattle vary considerably, according 

 the disease begins in the skin, in the lungs or in the intestines. They 

 depend also on the severity of the attack. Thus we may have what is 

 called anthrax peracutus or apoplectiform, when the animal dies very 

 suddenly as if from apoplexy. Such cases usually occur in the begin- 

 ning of an outbreak. The animal, without having shown any signs 

 of disease, suddenly drops down in the pasture and dies in convulsions, 

 or an animal apparently well at night is found dead in the morning. 



The second type anthrax acutus without any external swellings is 

 the one most commonly observed in cattle. The disease begins with a 

 high IVver. The temperature may reach 100 to 107 F. The pulse beats 

 from 80 to 100 per minute. Feeding and rumination arc suspended. 

 Chills and muscular tremors may appear and the skin show uneven 

 temperature. Tlio ears and base of the horns are cold, the coat star- 

 ing. The animals are dull and stupid and manifest great weakness. 



To these symptoms others arc added in the course of the disease. 

 The dullness may give way to great uneasiness, champing of the jaws, 

 >pa-m i of the limbs, kicking and pawing the ground. The breathing 

 may heroine labored. The nostrils then dilate, the mouth is open, the 

 he;id raised and all muscles of the chest are strained during breathing 

 while the visible inucuous membranes (nose, mouth, rectum and vagina) 

 heroine bluish. If tlie disease has started in the bowels there is much 

 pain, as shown by the moaning of the animal; the discharges at first 

 linn heeome softer and covered with serum, mucus and blood. 



As the disease approaches the fatal termination the weakness of the 



