MALIGNANT PUSTULE 313 



may also serve to spread the disease by feeding on infected 

 material and disseminating the spores by the excreta. 1 

 Pasteur suggested that earthworms might bring the spores 

 to the surface in their casts from the buried carcases of 

 infected animals, but some experiments by Koch nega- 

 tived this. The non-sporing bacilli rapidly degenerate 

 and die in a buried carcase. 



Man seems to be relatively insusceptible to anthrax. 

 The disease is generally met with among butchers, veteri- 

 nary surgeons, shepherds, etc., and among those who 

 sort wool or hair or work with, or carry, hides, e.g. 

 glove-makers, tanners, porters, etc. Many cases in 

 which infection was derived from cheap shaving brushes 

 have been reported during the last four or five years. 

 The infected brushes seem to have been mainly of 

 Japanese origin, and an order prohibiting their importa- 

 tion was issued in February, 1920. The disease occurs in 

 two forms: the so-called "malignant pustule," a cuta- 

 neous infection, not unlike an angry carbuncle, occurring 

 at the seat of inoculation, on exposed parts of the body, 

 such as the back of the neck, the face, wrists, and hands ; 

 and " wool-sorters' disease," a general infection, severe 

 and fortunately rare, through the lungs or stomach. A 

 cerebro-spinal meningitis, simulating cerebro-spinal fever, 

 may occur, but is very rare. Bag-sorters are likewise 

 sometimes attacked by anthrax, but there is also a dis- 

 tinct " rag-sorters' disease " which is stated to be due to 

 a non-motile, non-sporing, non-liquefying, capsulated 

 bacillus, the Proteus capsulatus hominis 2 of Bordoni 

 Uffreduzzi. 



1 Mollet, Centr.f. Bakt., Abt. I (Orig.), Ixx, 1913, p. 19. 



2 Capsulated bacilli have been met with in many septic processes. This 

 group includes Friedlander's pneumo-bacillus, P. capsulatus hominis, 

 B. mucosus capsulatus of Fricke, and the B. coli immobilis. They are met 

 with in conditions with sepsis, pus production, broncho -pneumonia, ulcerating 

 stomatitis, etc. They are shortish, non-motile, non-sporing rods, usually 



