158 THE MORE CHRONIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



BACTERIUM ANTHRACIS 



Anthrax or woolsorters' disease or splenic fever is 

 chiefly an acute infectious disease of animals caused 

 by the Bacterium anthracis or anthrax bacillus. It is 

 contracted by human beings through association with 

 infected animals, hides, wool, rags, and the like. It 

 is not uncommonly fatal to persons. It is expressed 

 as superficial abscesses, pustules, or carbuncles scat- 

 tered over the skin, or as softening of the spleen, 

 hemorrhages into the intestinal wall and some other 

 of the organs, even the brain. The woolsorters' 

 disease, or pulmonary form, occurs from inhaling 

 bacilli into the lungs. The bacteria enter by the 

 inspired air, by swallowing, or by wounds and cracks. 

 However they enter they spread by contiguity or 

 by the lymph. Their chief action is local. They 

 do not enter the blood stream except near death. 

 They do not settle in one place and remain there, 

 but may pass from one localization to another. Their 

 action is due to a soluble or extracellular toxin. This 

 attacks any tissue and causes the accumulation of 

 edema and blood. The softenings are due to the 

 killing effect of the bacillus poisons upon the tissues. 

 This solvent action also attacks the walls of blood- 

 vessels permitting the leaking of blood or a true 

 hemorrhage. The poisons are further absorbed by the 

 circulation with a resulting fever and general illness. 

 The bacteria may leave the body with pus or sloughs, 

 by the expectoration in the pulmonary form, or by the 

 feces when the infection is intestinal or has become 

 generalized. 



