540 DISEASES OF THE HOESE. 



that is needed, except perhaps a little Glauber's salt to prevent 

 constipation. 



Prophylactic treatment. — When horsepox breaks out among a large 

 number of horses, especially on a farm where there are a number of 

 colts, it may be assumed that the greater majority will contract the 

 disease, and it is more economical that they should have it and be 

 through with it at once. If the weather is moderate, all the animals 

 which have not been affected can be inoculated, which will produce 

 the disease in a mild form, with the eruption at a point of election, 

 and render the danger of complication a minimum one. For inocula- 

 tion the discharge from the pustules of a mild case should be selected 

 and inoculated by scarification on the belly or the under surface of 

 the neck. 



ANTHRAX. 



Synonyms: Carbuncle, splenic fever, splenic apoplexy, etc. ; charbon, sang de 

 rate (French) ; Miltzbrand (German). 



De-finition. — Anthrax is a severe and usually fatal contagious dis- 

 ease, characterized by chills, great depression and stupor of the ani- 

 mal, and a profound alteration of the blood. It is caused by the 

 entrance into the animal's body of a bacterium, known as the Bacillua 

 anthracis, or its spores. 



Practically all animals are susceptible to anthrax. The herbivora 

 are especially susceptible, in the following order : The sheep, the ox, 

 and the horse. The guinea pigj the hog, the rabbit, mice, and other 

 animals die quickly from its effects. Man, the dog, and other omniv- 

 ora and carnivora may be attacked by it in a constitutional form as 

 fatal as in the herbivora, but fortunately in many cases develop 

 from it only local trouble, followed by recovery. 



Anthrax has been a scourge of the animals of the civilized world 

 since the first written history we have of any of their diseases. In 

 1709-1712 extensive outbreaks of anthrax occurred in Germany, 

 Hungary, and Poland. In the first half of the nineteenth century it 

 had become an extensively spread disease in Kussia, Holland, and 

 England, and for the last century has been gradually spreading in 

 the Americas, more so in South America than here. In 1864, in the 

 five governments of Petersburg, Novgorod, Olonetz, Twer, and Jaros- 

 law, in Russia, more than 10,000 horses and nearly 1^000 persons per- 

 ished from the disease. 



Causes. — The causes of anthrax were for a long time attributed 

 entirely to climatic influence, soil, and atmospheric temperature, and 

 they are still recognized as predisposing factors in the development of 

 the disease, for it is usually found, especially when outbreaks in a 

 great number of animals occur, in low, damp, marshy countries dur- 

 ing the warm seasons. It is more frequent in districts where marshy 



