540 DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 
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). 
Definition 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 Bacillus 
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 pig, the hog, the rabbit, mice, and other 
animals die quickly from its effects. Man, the dog, and other omniy- 
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 Russia, 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 heanly 45 000 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 
