CHAPTER IV. 



Of Febrile Diseases. 



SPLENIC APOPLEXY— ANTHRAX. 



Anthrax is a disease which not only attacks cattle 

 and sheep but also pigs and horses, and by inoculation 

 of the blood of an affected animal, it may be conveyed 

 to almost all warm-blooded animals, including man- 

 kind. The manner in which cattle, sheep, and horses 

 are infected is difficult to trace, but there is but one 

 way that the disease can be propagated, and that is 

 the introduction into the body of the animal of the 

 spores or seeds of a rod-shaped organism, termed the 

 ** Bacillus Anthracis." 



Anthrax being a scheduled disease, stockowners 

 are required to report to the local authority its existence, 

 and treatment of the affected animal is not permitted. 

 The Board of Agriculture, having published a leaflet 

 on Anthrax, and expressly requested that the in- 

 formation which it contained might be brought under 

 the notice of agriculturists and stock-owners throughout 

 the country. We gladly comply with that request : — 



1. Anthrax is due to the existence in the blood oi 

 a minute rod (Bacillus Anthracis), which is one of a 

 large family of fungi, and grows from spores or seeds. 



2. Any substance which is brought on to a farm 

 may act as a carrier of the infecting agent : fodder, 



