162 APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY 



Hungary it is met witli so often that the disease has 

 become known as " rag disease." A resume is given in 

 the report of the numerous outbreaks which have occurred 

 in this country, and the opinion is expressed that many 

 non-fatal cases have not been reported. The evidence 

 produced shows that the principal classes of material by 

 means of which anthrax has been generally conveyed to 

 human beings in British factories and workshops are 

 (1) wool (including camel-hair and goat-hair) ; (2) hides 

 and skins ; (3) horse-hair and bristles. The various trades 

 in which these articles are manipulated are considered in 

 detail, and in summarising their conclusions the committee 

 say that there are three principal directions from which the 

 question of prevention may be approached — the exclusion 

 of infected material from use, disinfection, and the employ- 

 ment of insusceptible persons. As in many countries the 

 disease is endemic, we cannot count upon due care either in 

 preventing the spread of the malady or even in excluding 

 infected materials from those forwarded for sale and export. 

 The suggestion of disinfection, promising as it may appear 

 at first sight, does not bear examination. Not single bales 

 (known to be dangerous) are in question, but thousands of 

 bales, any one of which may be dangerous. Hence, it is 

 evident that upon such an enormous scale anything worth 

 calling disinfection is hopeless. 



A number of cases of anthrax, resulting in a number of 

 deaths, have recently been reported in various parts of the 

 United States, from tanneries dealing with hides imported 

 from China. Also a number of cattle have been infected as 

 the result of drinking water from rivers and creeks re- 

 ceiving the waste liquors from these works. 



The virulence of Bacillus anthracis becomes attenuated 

 when : 



(a) Cultivated in the blood of a non-susceptible animal. 



