212 Veterinary Medicine. 



tion, author's experience, apparent failures, advantages. Drainage — S,ra.- 

 tion of land. Prevention of importation and diffusion. Therapeutic treat- 

 ment. 



Prevention of anthrax in animals is equally important for the 

 sanitation of herds and human beings. It involves the purging 

 from the anthrax bacillus of the infected lands and the drinking 

 supplies, and in this respect the disease is much le.ss amenable 

 to thorough and speedy extinction than is a simple plague in 

 which the germ does not live and multiply outside the animal 

 body. In some localities the extinction of the germ may be con- 

 fidently counted on and secured ; in others, it may be impossible 

 and other measures of protection must be resorted to. 



Killing of the Sick and Disposal of the Carcass. This is not 

 always so imperative as in the obligatory parasitic infections, 

 since the destruction of the sick, still leaves the germ present in 

 the soil and water. If, however, the infection has just been in- 

 troduced, on hitherto uninfected soil, by the arrival of new ani- 

 mals, and, if the new location is in any way favorable to per- 

 manent colonization by anthrax bacillus, and, if the diseased and 

 suspected animals cannot be kept secluded so as to absolutely ex- 

 clude these dangers, or again, if the diseased herd or its remnant 

 is to be moved on to another locality, slaughter is the obvious 

 sanitary measure. 



The animal should be killed on the premises to avoid the danger 

 of scattering the infectious discharges in transit ; it must not be 

 bled, nor cut open, as the admission of air determines the forma- 

 tion of the resistant spore ; and the carcass must be burned, 

 boiled, or rendered in superheated steam under pressure, or 

 finally dissolved in strong mineral acids. If buried, it must be 

 in open, porous soil, well apart from anj'^ well, pond, river, or 

 bank where the liquids may leach out, and the body must be 

 wholly covered to a depth of at least five feet. The graves must 

 be well fenced in from all stock, for a number of years, and no 

 forage grown on them can be safely fed to animals, as the bacillus 

 can be brought to the surface by earth worms. I have known 

 cattle to become infected through licking the fluid which escaped 

 above a stratum of clay, on the deep bank of a river, at some 

 little distance from where an anthrax carcass was buried in the 

 surface sandy loam. A covering of coal tar, chloride of lime or 

 of sand charged with sulphuric acid is an admirable precaution. 



