Infectious Diseases 



I. Geoup 



ACUTE GENERAL INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



1. Anthrax. Febris carbunculosa 



{Splenic Fever; Milzbrandfieher, Milzfieber, Karhunkelkrank- 



heit [German] ; Fievre charhonneuse, Charbon bacteridien 



[French]; Antrace, Febbre carbonchiosa [Italian].) 



Anthrax is an acute, febrile, infectious disease of domestic 

 animals, particularly of ruminants and horses, caused by the 

 bacillus anthracis, and characterized anatomically by an acute 

 swelling of the spleen and by serous hemorrhagic infiltrations of 

 the subcutaneous and subserous connective tissue. 



History. The disease was known by its present name in the oldest 

 times (av&ga^ -=coal, on account of the black color of the blood); but it 

 was confused with other diseases disclosing similar symptoms until the 

 middle Of the last century. Its contagiousness was first established by 

 Eilert in 1836 by successful inoculations as well as by the feeding of 

 anthrax blood, and by Gerlach in a similar manner a few years later 

 (1845). In the year 1850 Davaine, and Rayer, in 1855 PoUender and 

 soon after Brauell found in the blood of animals which died of anthrax 

 peculiar rod-shaped bodies, which Brauell also demonstrated in the blood 

 of living animals, attributing a diagnostic value to his findings. After 

 Delafond (1860) had already recognized the vegetable nature of these 

 bodies and named them bacteria, Davaine (1865) established their etio- 

 logical importance, as in his experiments blood containing these bodies 

 produced the disease even in high dilutions, while inoculations with blood 

 without such rods gave negative results. 



The fungous nature of anthrax bacilli was definitely established by 

 Cohn. However, they were first artificially cultivated by R. Koch (1876) 

 and by Pasteur (1877), whose fundamental investigations opened a new 

 path for the theory of the infectious diseases in general through the study 

 of the biological characteristics of the anthrax virus, as well as the 

 etiology of the disease. At the same time Pasteur 's classical experiments 

 in attenuation and protective inoculation established the foundation for 

 the modern theory of immunity, the development of which has already. 



