ANTHRAX 283 



edematous swellings appear on different parts of the body. 

 The favorite seats are under the throat, on the chest, flanks, 

 and loins. The swellings are at first hot and painful, but later 

 become colder and less sensitive. They are usually flat and 

 subcutaneous, and in the early stages the overlying skin and 

 hair may appear normal. Thus they may be overlooked. 

 When swellings occur in the throat, symptoms of edema of 

 the glottis follow. In swine the disease usually involves the 

 throat with swelling of the parotid and laryngeal regions, 

 later extending to the face. The patient shows dyspnea and 

 dysphagia. The mucous membranes are cyanotic and show 

 petechias; the same symptoms may also occur in the skin. 

 Death results from asphyxia. 



Course. — The course in peracute cases, as noted, is very 

 rapid, lasting only fifteen minutes to one hour. In acute cases 

 it may last one to three days, and in subacute ones a week or 

 more, exceptionally ending in recovery. In the horse the 

 cutaneous and bowel (colic) forms seem to predominate; in 

 the ox anthrax occurs as a general febrile disease with a ten- 

 dency to bowel hemorrhages, skin swellings being rare. In 

 the sheep the course is usually stormy, the disease rarely 

 locating in special organs, and assumes the form of a pure 

 septicemia. 



Diagnosis. — Intra vitam a diagnosis of anthrax can rarely be 

 made with any degree of certainty. As a rule a necropsy 

 must first be held and a bacteriological examination made of 

 the blood and parenchymatous tissues (spleen pulp). Clin- 

 ically, anthrax resembles certain forms of forage poisoning, 

 hemorrhagic septicemia, black-leg, malignant edema, and 

 Texas fever. Peracute cases might easily be confused with 

 edema of the glottis, cerebral congestion (sunstroke), and 

 acute pulmonary edema. Acute poisonings might also be 

 taken for it (temperature high here only in the latter stages) . 

 It is sometimes sufficient to draw blood from the suspected 

 patient (ear or foot) and inoculate with it a guinea-pig or 

 white mouse, which, if the blood contains anthrax bacilli, will 

 succumb in twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The blood and 

 spleen pulp will contain the capsulated rods, which may be 

 determined by proper staining. 



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