BLACKLEG. 457 



As sooner or later these carbuncles and swellings may lead to an 

 infection of the entire body, and thus be fatal, surgical assistance 

 should at once be called if there is well-grounded suspicion that any 

 swellings resembling those described above have been caused by in- 

 oculation with anthrax virus. Inasmuch as physicians differ as to 

 medicinal treatment of such accidents in man, it would be out of 

 place to make any suggestions in this connection. 



Extensive data are available, however, on the effectiveness of an- 

 thrax serum for the treatment of the disease in man. It is recom- 

 mended that from 30 to 40 cubic centimeters of serum be injected in 

 three or four different places. Should no improvement follow in 

 24 hours additional injections of 20 to 30 cubic centimeters should be 

 administered. 



In most instances the results are favorable, and this treatment is 

 acknowledged to be superior to any other mode of treatment known 

 for the disease. 



To show that the transmission of anthrax to man is not so very 

 uncommon, we take the following figures from the 1890 report of 

 the German GoA^ernment: The attention of the authorities was 

 brought to 111 cases, of which 11 terminated fatally. The largest 

 number of inoculations Avere caused by the slaughtering, opening, 

 and skinning of animals affected with anthrax; hence, the butchers 

 suffered most extensively. Of the 111 thus affected, 36 belonged to 

 this craft. 



In addition to anthrax of the skin (known as malignant pustule), 

 human beings are subject, though very rarely, to the disease of the 

 lungs and the digestive organs. In the former case the spores are 

 inhaled by workmen in establishments in which wool, hides, and rags 

 are worked over, and it is therefore known as woolsorter's disease. 

 In the latter case the disease is contracted by eating the flesh of dis- 

 eased animals which has not been thoroughly cooked. These forms 

 of the disease are more fatal than those in which the disease starts 

 from the skin. 



BLACKLEG.' 



[PI. XLIL] 



Blackleg, black quarter, quarter ill. symptomatic anthrax, charbon 

 symptomatique of the French, Eauschbrand of the Germans, is a 

 rapidly fatal, infectious disease of young cattle, associated with ex- 

 ternal swellings Avhich emit a crackling soimd when handled. This 

 disease was formerly regarded identical with anthrax, but investiga- 

 tions by various scientists in recent times have definitely proved the 

 entire dissimilarity of the two affections, both from a clinical and a 



1 For detailod information regarding blackleg and the free distribution of blackleg 

 vaccine, write to the Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, Washington, D. C. 



