INFECTIOUS DISEASES. 543 



globules crenated and the leucocytes granular. A high power of the 

 microscope also, reveals the bacteria in the shape of little rodlike 

 bodies of homogeneous texture with their brilliant spores. 



The lymphatic ganglia are increased four, five, six, or ten times 

 their natural size, enlarged by the engorgement of blood. The spleen 

 shows nodulated black spots containing a muddy blood, which is 

 found teeming with the virus. This organ is much enlarged and is 

 quite friable. The mucous membranes of the intestines are congested 

 and reddish brown ; the surface of the intestines is in many places 

 denuded of its lining membrane, showing fissures and hemorrhagic 

 spots. The liver has a cooked appearance ; the kidneys are congested 

 and friable; the urine is red; the pleura, lungs, and the meninges are 

 congested, and the bronchi of the lungs contain a bloody foam. 



Treatment. — ^Treatment of anthrax in animals by medicinal means 

 has not proved satisfactory. In cases of local anthrax an incision 

 of the swelling followed by the application of disinfectants some- 

 times causes good results. In such cases, however, the danger of dis- 

 seminating the infection from the wounds tends to make this pro- 

 cedure inadvisable unless great care is taken. 



Good results are obtained from the use of serum in the treatment 

 of the disease. For this purpose 30 to 100 cubic centimeters should 

 be administered subcutaneously or intravenously. If no improve- 

 ment is noticed within 24 hours the injection should be repeated. In 

 a number of instances afforded to test'the curative value of the serum 

 in cases of anthrax in man and animals splendid results were ob- 

 tained. 



The prophylactic treatment formerly consisted in the avoidance of 

 certain fields and marshes which were recognized as contaminated 

 during the months of August and September and had been occupied 

 the years in which the outbreaks usually occurred. It underwent, 

 however, a revolution after the discovery by Pasteur of the possibility 

 of a prophylactic inoculation or vaccination which granted immunity 

 from future attacks of the disease similar to that granted by the 

 recovery of an animal from an ordinary attack of the disease. 



This treatment consists in the use of a vaccine which is made by the 

 artificial cultivation of the virus of anthrax in broth and in the treat- 

 ment of it by means of continued exposure to a high temperature for 

 a certain time, which weakens the virus to such extent that it is 

 capable of producing only a very mild and not dangerous attack of 

 anthrax in the animal in which it is inoculated, and thus protects it 

 from inoculation of a stronger virus. The production of this virus, 

 which is carried on in some countries at the expense of the govern- 

 ments and is furnished at a small cost to the farmers in regions where 

 the disease prevails, in this country is made in private laboratories 

 only. 



