Suppression and Prevention of Anthrax in Herds. 251 



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 drinking sup- 

 plies, and in this respect the disease is much less 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 confidently 

 counted on and secured ; in others this 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 perma- 

 nent 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 resort. 



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 

 formation 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, far apart from any 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 bacil- 

 lus can be brought to the surface by earth worms or soil water. 

 I have known cattle to become infected by 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. 



As a measure of economy the skins may be removed, if at 



