464 DISEASES OF CATTLE. 



Siile to have such vaccine injected by a hij^man; instead, it should be 

 handled only by a competent veterinarian. 



Anthrax is an entirely different disease from blackleg, and there- 

 fore blackleg vaccine does not act as a preventive against anthrax. 



ANTHRAX IN MAN (MALIGNANT PUSTULE, OR CARBUNCLE). 



Anthrax may be transmitted to man in handling the carcasses and 

 hides of animals which have succumbed to the disease. The infec- 

 tion usually takes place through some abrasion or slight wound of 

 the skin into which the anthrax spores, or bacilli, find their way. 

 The point of inoculation appears at first as a dark point or patch, 

 compared by some writers to the sting of a flea. After a few hours 

 this is changed into a reddened pimple, which bears on its summit, 

 usually around a hair, a yellowish blister, or vesicle, which later on 

 becomes red or bluish in color. The burning sensation in this stage 

 is very great. Later on this pimple enlarges, its center become^ dry, 

 gangrenous, and is surroimded by an elevated discolored swelling. 

 The center becomes drier and more leather like, and sinks in as the 

 whole increases in size. The skin around this swelling, or carbuncle, 

 is stained yellow or bluish, and is not infrequently swollen and 

 doughy to the touch. The carbuncle itself rarely grows larger than 

 a pea or a small nut. and is but slightly painful. 



Anthrax swellings, or edemas, already described as occurring in 

 cattle, may also be found in man, and they are at times so extensive 

 as to produce distortion in the appearance of the part of the body 

 on Avhich they are located. The color of the skin over these swellings 

 varies according to the situation and thickness of the skin and the 

 stage of the disease, and may be white, red, bluish, or blackish. 



As these carbuncles and swelling-s may lead, sooner or later, 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 due to inocu- 

 lation with anthrax virus. Inasmuch as physicians differ as to treat- 

 ment of such accidents in man, it would be out of place to make any 

 suggestions in this connection. 



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

 uncommon, we take the following figures from the report of the Ger- 

 man Government for 1890: One hundred and eleven cases were 

 brought to the notice of the authorities, of which 11 terminated 

 fatally. The largest number of inoculations were due to the slaugh- 

 tering, 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 



