Anthrax. 209 



canaries, yellow hammers, red breasts. The larger birds are more 

 resistant but succumb readily if dosed with chloral hydrate, or 

 antipyrin (Wagner). Birds of prey seem to be immune. 



In chickens the disease is very acute, of rapid progress and 

 fatal. A few hours after inoculation they are seized with dulness, 

 debility, sunken head, drooping wings and tail, ruf&ed feathers, 

 and dark red or black discoloration of comb and wattles. Dark 

 colored anthrax swellings may appear on these last, on the eyes, 

 tongue, palate or feet, and the obstruction of breathing may cause 

 general cyanosis. Weakness is extreme, the bird staggers or is 

 unable to rise, has violent tremors or convulsions, with bloody 

 diarrhoea and perishes after a few hours or a day's illness. The 

 presence of anthrax in the locality, or in other species, will be to 

 some extent a safeguard against confounding chicken cholera, 

 entero-hepatitis or malignant cedema with this affection. The 

 crucial diagnosis is based, as in other animals on the discovery of 

 the characteristic bacillus. 



Differential Diagnosis. The suddenness of the attack, hyper- 

 thermia, dusky, cyanotic, petechiated mucosae, the escape of 

 blood from mucous surfaces, the dark, tarry blood, brightening 

 imperfectly on exposure to the air, its comparatively loose 

 coagulum, the crenation and destruction of red globules, the 

 staining of the serum with haematoidin, the leucocytosis, the en- 

 gorged, enlarged liver and spleen, and the gelatinoid or bloody 

 swellings, not gasogeuic as in black-quarter or malignant oedema, 

 together present a picture which is strongly suggestive of 

 anthrax. If the malady affects domestic animals generally, is 

 especially virulent in cattle, sheep and horses, and attacks even 

 man ; if the district is subject to anthrax, or of a rich damp soil 

 which would be favorable to the preservation of bacillus anthracis ; 

 if it is in the line of watershed from stock markets, abattoirs, 

 tanneries, rendering works, glue factories, packing houses, 

 sausage factories, or phosphate works ; if forage or new stock has 

 been introduced from an anthrax district ; and if the outbreak 

 has taken place with a high water level, or during a dry hot 

 season the case for anthrax will be strengthened. 



The final tests are, however, by the microscope and inoculation. 

 To discover the bacillus a power of 400 to 500 diameters is desir- 

 able. From the living animal take a drop of blood, exudate, or 

 14 



