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prevalent among young animals. Anthrax also attacks sheep and pigs, and 
is not uncommon among other animals. In dogs also it is occasionally met 
with in those which have partaken of the diseased flesh of creatures which. 
have died of anthrax. 
In man, anthrax is often derived from cases of splenic fever of animals, 
and it is known as “woolsorters’ disease” in this country, and as the 
« Siberian plague” in Northern ‘Asia. In the human species anthrax may- 
also occur as the so-called malignant pustule, which is developed as the- 
result of local inoculation from handling infected wool of animals which have- 
died of anthrax, or from the contact of an injured surface with the diseased. 
carcases. 
Although anthrax is now of rare occurrence in the horse in this country,. 
it frequently raged as a malignant and destructive epidemic in man and the: 
domesticated animals in past times. This disease was known ai a very early” 
date. It is mentioned in the scriptural records as the “ grievous murrain and’ 
blains” which affected man and beast in the days of the captivity of the 
Israelites in the land of Egypt, and we read that the murrain was then upon: 
the horses, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep.* Anthrax was also described by 
old Greek and Latin writers. The former termed it anthrax, which signifies. 
a burning coal. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were especially 
remarkable for the devastations made by many severe outbreaks of this. 
plague. In 1617 the malady was of so fatal a type that over 60,000 people - 
died around Naples alone from eating of the flesh of animals which had died 
of the disease. At the present day anthrax often rages as splenic fever in. 
Siberia. As Loodianah disease it is of more frequent occurrence in Central 
India, and is well known in Australia as the Cumberland disease. In South 
Africa it is spoken of as the Cape horse sickness, and it is also met with in 
North and_South America. As “Texas fever” in the United States it is of 
common occurrence, and makes serious ravages among the cattle. According 
to Toussaint, animals of the value of 20,000,000 francs die annually of splenic 
fever in France. 
Of late years our knowledge of the nature, causes, and methods of 
prevention of anthrax has, owing to the labours of scientists, been 
considerably increased; yet it is remarkable that—although in France and 
Germany matters are different—in England there is, as far as we know, no 
enactment which enables anyone to interfere with the disposal of carcases of 
animals which have died of the disease, nor are there any specified regulations 
regarding the drainage of lands on which splenic fever appears periodically. 
Regarding the causes of anthrax, we may mention that it is especially 
prevalent in low-lying, swampy districts, where the soil is rich in organic 
matter, these conditions being in the highest degree favourable for the: 
*Exodus, c. ix., v. 3-—‘‘ Behoid, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon 
the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very 
grievous murrain,” 5 
Exodus, c. ix,, v. 10.—‘‘ And they took.ashes of the furnace, and stood before’Pharaoh: and. 
Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon’ man: 
and upon beast.” ir 
Vide also, Deuteronomy, vc. xxviii., v. 27 and 35. 
