GBNBRAL DISEASES. 1 43 



icky pains. The mucous membranes turn a deep ochre or bluish-red 

 color. The body temperature is rapidly elevated to 104° and 105" F. 

 The breathing is increased to thirty or forty respirations in the minute 

 and the pulse is greatly accelerated, but the arteries are soft and almost 

 imperceptible, while the heart-beats can be felt and heard, violent and 

 tumultuous. In other words, it resembles a very severe case of influ- 

 enza, except in regard to the heart's action. The symptoms last but 

 two, three, or four days, at most, when the case usually terminates 

 fatally. An examination of the blood shows a dark fluid which is not 

 clot, and which remains black after exposure to the air. After death 

 the bodies putrify rapidly and bloat up; the tissues are filled with gases 

 and a bloody foam exudes from the mouth, nostrils, and anus, and fre- 

 quently the mucous membranes of the rectum protrude from the latter. 

 The hairs detach from the skin. Congestion of all the organs and tis- 

 sues is found, with interstitial hemorrhages. The muscles are friable 

 and are covered with ecchymotic spots. This is specially marked in 

 the heart. 



The black, imcoagulated and incoaguable blood shows an iridescert 

 scum on its surface, which is due to the fat of the animal dis.solved by 

 the ammonia, produced by the decomposed tissues. The serum oozes 

 out of every tissue and contains broken-down blood, v/hich, when ex- 

 amined microscopically, is found to have the red globules crenated and 

 the leucocytes granular. A high power of the microscope also reveals 

 the bacteria in the shape of little rod-like bodies of homogeneous texture 

 with their brilliant spores. 



The lymphatic ganglia are increased four, five, six, or ten times their 

 natural size, enlarged by the engorgement of blood. The spleen shows 

 nodulated black spots containing a muddy blood, which is found teem- 

 ing with the virus. The mucous membranes of the intestines are con- 

 gested and brown; the surface of the intestines is in many places de- 

 nuded of its lining membrane, showing fissures and hemorrhagic spots. 

 The liver has a cooked appearance; the kidneys are congested and fria- 

 ble; the urine is red; the pleura, lungs, and the meninges are congested 

 and the bronchi of the lungs contain a bloody foam. 



The symptoms are those which are found in any disease with a rapidly 

 decomposing blood. 



Treatment The treatment of anthrax was entirely useless and in- 

 effectual until within a comparatively few years. The curative treat- 

 ment, for which almost every drug in the pharmacopoeia has been used, 



