476 GENERAL DISEASES. 



away an ear from the dead body. " Even in midsummer, the 

 blood in the veins of an ear or a foot removed from the un- 

 opened carcase on the day after death shows large numbers of 

 anthrax bacilli, and even as late as the third day after death, 

 anthrax bacilli are still readily demonstrable in the situations 

 mentioned " (" Journal of Comparative Pathology," September, 

 1894). 



SANITARY MEASURES.— Although the microbes of anthrax do 

 not appear capable, under ordinary circumstances, of being 

 carried by the air from one horse to another; the risk of contami^ 

 nation of ground, fodder, and water by anthrax-stricken animals 

 is sufficiently great to render segregation advisable. Consequently, 

 when an outbreak occurs among a stud of horses, they should be 

 removed, if possible, to some dry, healthy position. The whole 

 of them should be kept apart from other animals ; and there 

 should be a further division made between the sick and apparently 

 healthy. In effecting this, the clincal thermometer (p. 681) will 

 be found to be of great use. 'The water and grass or hay should 

 be changed. Special care should be taken tO' avoid the use of 

 grass grown near water which is of a marshy nature, or which 

 comes from a polluted source. If, as is generally the case in 

 India, the flooring of the stables be of earth, it should, before 

 the horses return to them, be dug up for a foot or two, the 

 old soil removed, fresh earth filled in, concrete, which should be 

 liberally treated with crude carbolic acid, laid down, and the 

 usual disinfecting precautions observed. The best practical mea- 

 sures for the purifying of anthrax-contaminated land is draining 

 and a good dressing of lime, and salt (p. 408). 



As the eating of anthrax-tainted flesh is liable to produce the 

 disease ; such flesh, in a raw state, should not be used as food for 

 other animals. The danger of inoculation to those persons who 

 have to cut it up, should preclude its employment even in a 

 boiled condition. The bodies of such animals should, if possible, 

 be burnt. If this cannot be done, we should bury them deeply in 

 sandy soil without breaking the skin, so as to prevent, as far as 

 possible, spore formation. The bacteria of anthrax, tetanus and 

 other diseases multiply by forming spores, which are round and 

 oval bodies and which are far more resistant to destructive agents 

 than bacteria. The free, use over the diseased carcases, of crude 

 carbolic acid, quick lime or other available disinfectant, will be 

 productive of good. 



Up to the present, protective inoculation against anthrax has 

 not been very successful with horses. 



