Emphysematous Anthrax. 187 



Fever is a constant condition as the swelling advances and 

 sometimes it precedes the local engorgement. There is erection 

 of the hair, with it . may be, distinct shivering, recurring again 

 and again. Then general stiffness, duluess, prostration, loss of 

 appetite and rumination, accelerated breathing sometimes at- 

 tended by a grunt or moan, and rapid pulse. The temperature 

 usually reaches 104" F., and may rise to 109" F. The breathing 

 becomes more and more labored and plaintive, colicy symptoms 

 may set in, the prostration advances to complete adynamia, the 

 patient can no longer stand, the temperature drops to 100° F. , 

 or 98° F. , and death supervenes in from eight hours to two days 

 from the first sign of illness. 



In some cases the swelling may be invisible because it is situ- 

 ated deeply or it may perhaps be entirely absent, and the con- 

 stitutional symptoms are the only ones observed. 



Diagnosis. From malignant cedema, which it resembles in 

 producing gas and crepitating tumors, emphysematous anthrax 

 is distinguished by the greater length of the microbe, by its forma- 

 tion of spores at the pole and not in the centre of the bacillus, by 

 the more sluggish motions of the germ, by the restriction of the 

 germ to given infected districts instead of being generally diffused 

 as in malignant cedema, by its not attacking man, rabbit, nor pigeon, 

 which are subject to malignant cedema, by. its deadly action on 

 mature cattle which are usually immune from malignant oedema, 

 and by the abundant blood extravasation on the swelling. 



From anthrax it is distinguished by the motility of the bacillus, 

 by its polar sporulatiou and club shape, by its rounded ends, by 

 its absence from the blood in the earlier stages, by the presence 

 of gas and crepitation in the swellings, and by the deadly action 

 of the infection on Guinea pigs, but not on rabbit, man, nor 

 pigeon. Anthrax is easily inoculable on a cutaneous sore or in- 

 travenously whereas emphysematous anthrax is not. 



Lesions. The carcass is liable to be bloated with gas and a 

 reddish, frothy liquid often escapes from mouth nose and anus. 

 Gas is particularly abundant in the substance of the tumor, and 

 the skin covering it may be dry and crackling. An incision 

 made into the swelling exposes a mass of blood extravasation 

 and lymph exudate, the blood predominating in the centre so that 

 it may appear clotted and black, and mixed with gas bubbles, 



