ANTHRAX 183 



No part of the carcass should be touched with the bare 

 hands ; heavy rubber gloves should always be used. 



The diagnosis can be made positive postmortem upon 

 the following findings : 



1. Multiple hemorrhages into the connective tissue are 

 seen immediately the integument is removed. 



2. The blood appears tarry-black in aU the vessels and 

 it does not coagulate. 



3. The edematous swellings, when cut into, are jeUy- 

 like in consistency. 



4. The lymphatic glands, when cut into, have a 

 "strawberry" cast; they appear very much like the cut 

 surface of a strawberry. 



5. The spleen is very much enlarged, and its paren- 

 chyma is easily broken down. 



6. Eigor mortis is only partial, or even entirely 

 absent. 



In addition to these cardinal lesions there are hemor- 

 rhagic areas in nearly every organ, serious infiltration 

 is evident in nearly all tissues, and in some cases there 

 are even necrotic areas. The diagnosis can be clinched 

 by microscopic examination of blood smears; the large 

 bacilli can be seen under low power, formed in short 

 chains. 



Carcasses and aU excreta of horses dead from anthrax 

 should be burned. The infective agent exists in the 

 alvine discharges and other excreta. 



Treatment. The treatment of anthrax in horses can 

 be summed up in one word — prevention. Anthrax is 

 nearly always fatal in horses. "While cattle oftentimes 

 recover from ordinary anthrax infections, horses nearly 

 always die. The whole hope lies, therefore, in prevent- 

 ive vaccination, a proceeding that is quite generally 

 recognized. 



Recent developments along the line of curative treat- 



