CHAPTER XIV. 



ANTHRAX. 



Anthrax is a very fatal malady, and most irregular in its be- 

 haviour. At one time it attacks only one or two animals, and 

 at another time it will destroy nearly all the stock on a farm. 

 Farmers formerly regarded the disease as non-communicable, and 

 possibly the result of excessive or improper feeding, or faulty sani- 

 tation, or of climatic conditions over which no control could be 

 exercised. It is obvious that so long as the disease was regarded as 

 the result of unknown conditions, no explanation could be given of 

 its recurrence from time to time, or of certain animals contracting 

 the disease and others not, and no measures of any use could be 

 suggested to cope with an outbreak. 



Anthrax has always been more prevalent on the Continent than 

 in England, and this to some extent accounts for the fact that it has 

 received greater attention abroad. In France, Germany, Hungary, 

 Russia, and in India and Persia, anthrax at times produces wide- 

 spread losses. In Siberia it is still known on this account as the 

 Siberian Plague. 



On the Continent there are certain localities known as anthrax 

 districts on -account of their reputation for anthrax — for example, in 

 the Upper Bavarian Alps in Germany and in Auvergne in France. 



In 1849, Pollender happened to examine the blood of a cow 

 after death from anthrax, and discovered peculiar rod-like bodies 

 among the blood cells. The same observation was made independ- 

 ently by Brauell and Davaine about the same time, but the greatest 

 importance must be attached to the publication of Davaine's further 

 researches in 1863. Many ridiculed the discovery of bacilli, and 

 stoutly maintained that they were only blood crystals or accidental 

 structures of no importance. 



For many years very little progress was made, and the statements 

 of other observers who were able to verify and add to Pollender's 

 and Davaine's discoveries, were still received with scepticism. 



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