358 Anthrax 



thrax is rarely so caused except the number of bacilli be great, 

 when it results in a disturbance at first localized in the lungs, and 

 much resembling pneumonia. From the lungs generalized infection 

 may later occur and destroy life. This form of infection is of occa- 

 sional occurrence among men whose occupation occasionally brings 

 them into contact with the hair or hides of animals dead of anthrax, 

 and is often spoken of as "wool-sorters' disease." 



Anthrax in cattle probably results from the inhalation or ingestion 

 of the spores of the bacilli from the pasture. Interesting discussions 

 arose concerning the infection of the pastures. It was argued that, 

 the bacilli being inclosed in the tissues of the diseased animals, in- 

 fection of the pasture must depend upon the distribution of the germs 

 from buried cadavers, either through the activity of earthworms, 

 which ate of the earth surrounding the corpse and deposited the 

 spores in their excrement (Pasteur), or to currents of moisture in the 

 soil. Koch seems, however, to have demonstrated the fallacy of 

 both theories by showing that the conditions under which the bacilli 

 find themselves in buried cadavers are opposed to fructification or 

 sporulation, and that in all probability the bacteria suffer the same 

 fate as the cells of the buried animals, and disintegrate, especially 

 if the animal be buried at a depth of two or three meters. 



Frankel points out particularly that no infection of the soil by 

 the dead animal could be worse than the pollution of its surface by 

 the bloody stools and urine, rich in bacilli, discharged upon it by the 

 animal before death, and that it is the live, and not the dead, animals 

 that are to be blamed for the infection. 



Fig. 133. — Anthrax carbuncle or malignant carbuncle (Lexer). 



II. The Alimentary Tract. — When the bacilli are taken into the 

 stomach they are probably destroyed by the acid gastric juice. 

 The spores, however, are able to endure the acid, and pass uninjured 

 into the intestine, where the suitable alkalinity enables them to 

 develop into bacilli, surround the villi with thick networks of bacil- 

 lary threads, separate the covering epithelial cells, enter the lym- 

 phatics, and then the blood, and effect general infection. 



///. The Skin. — The bacillus frequently enters the body through 

 wounds, cuts, scratches, and perhaps occasionally fly-bites, though 



