SPECIFIC DISEASES. 263 



and in Africa as horse , sickness. While in the sheep it is gener- 

 ally called braxy, but is also known as Cumberland disease (Aus- 

 tralia), or great head (ISTorth England), or typhus, etc., etc. 



But as occurring in all animals it is strictly correct to term 

 it anthrax, as in all cases it is due to the presence in the system 

 of a rod-shaped, spore-bearing bacillus, termed the Bacillus An- 

 thracis. The history of anthrax is very interesting, dating back 

 as it does to the remote past. A reference is supposed to be 

 made to this disease in the Bible, Exodus, Chap, ix: "Boils 

 which came forth as blains, upon man and upon beast through- 

 out Egypt," one of the plagues of Egypt. Ancient Latin and 

 Greek records describe its appearance about the time of the 

 seige of Troy, and in 1617 at Naples, in Italy, 60,000 persons 

 are supposed to have perished from eating the flesh of anthra- 

 coid animals. 



In France its ravages have been severely felt. In the latter 

 part of the century, it assumed a most virulent form, all 

 kinds of domesticated animals succumbing to its attacks, and to 

 the investigation of a Frenchman, the celebrated Pasteur, is due 

 the recognized preventive treatment, namely, the inoculation 

 of healthy animals with an attenuated virus of the disease, 

 which renders them forever after immune to its attacks. 



In the sheep as well as in cattle a condition is met with 

 which simulates anthrax. This is called black-leg, quarter-ill, 

 etc., and while this is a very serious affection, its virulence is not 

 to be compared with anthrax proper; in fact it is not due to the 

 "bacillus anthracis," but to another form of micro-organism. 



Diseases which are specific in character and similar to 

 anthrax, are classed generally as anthracoid. They are not due 

 to the anthrax bacillus and must not be confounded with that 

 disease. 



