ANTHRAX. 471 



difficult — the animal fighting for breath — tracheotomy must be 

 performed. 



During the after treatment, the horse should be liberally fed 

 and may have a couple of quarts of beer a day, with three or 

 four drachms of iodide of potassium daily in his food or water 

 as a preventive to roaring. As there is danger and difficulty in 

 drenching, that operation should be dispensed with, as much as 

 possible. In all cases, the horse should be carefully nursed and 

 his strength kept up. 



Roarins: is the chief after-effect to be feared from an attack of 

 strangles. The fact of a horse having safely passed through this 

 disease increases his value. 



Anthrax. 



SYNONYMS. — Loodiana Fever, Horse Plague, Charbon. 



DEFINITION. — A specific disease which rims a rapid and gene- 

 rally fatal course, and is characterised by an imperfectly oxidised 

 condition of the blood, which becomes thick, dark coloured, and 

 more or less incapable of supporting life. 



DISTRIBUTION. — This disease is widely distributed over the 

 world, although it is comparatively rare among horses in England. 

 It is well known in India as Loodiana Fever, and is frequently met 

 with on the Eastern frontier of Bengal; particularly among the 

 ponies of the Munipur country. 



It is not confined to horses, but also attacks cattle, buffaloes, 

 sheep, pigs, elephants, deer, and almost all the larger animals. 

 Those which feed on herbs appear specially liable to it. Dogs are 

 but seldom affected. It can be readily communicated to man, 

 and then takes the form of "malignant pustule" (woolsorters' 

 disease). Hence, the attendants on animals suffering from this 

 disease, and persons who make post-mortem examinations of 

 anthrax-stricken animals, should be most careful in guarding 

 against the possibility of their becoming inoculated by its virus. 



VARIETIES. — Strictly speaking, there is only one kind of 

 anthrax; although, for convenience sake, we may divide it into 

 anthrax accompanied by swelling of the throat and neck, and 

 anthrax without this symptom. In the former case, the seat of 

 the disease seems to be located chiefly in the organs of breathing ; 

 in the latter, in those of the abdomen. The one might be termed 

 the thoracic form; the other, the abdominal. 



SYMPTOMS. — There is a marked rise in the internal tempera- 

 ture, which not very unfrequently exceeds 107° F. The horse, 



