PREVENTION, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT 2I 



pulse and breathing are rapid. There are stupor, weakness, chills 

 colic and vertigo. Hot, painful swellings appear on the skin which 

 become cold and painless. It is fatal in most cases in two to four 

 days. The post mortem appearances are the same as in cattle. Rigor 

 mortis quickly passes and decomposition rapidly occurs. Bodies 

 bloat and bloody fluid escapes from the nose, mouth and anus. 



Hemorrhages are general in the viscera and the spleen is en- 

 larged some two to three times and soft. Dark, tarry blood is found 

 in the cavities of the peritoneum, pericardium and pleurae. Swell- 

 ings are seen on the skin and B. anthracis occurs in the blood. The 

 mortality varies from 70 to 90 per cent. 



Diagnosis. — Texas fever and black leg are most apt to con- 

 fuse in cattle. In Texas fever the blood is not black and tarry, but 

 thin; the disease is of longer duration; there is bloody urine and 

 fever ticks on the animal. In black leg the swellings are on the 

 shoulder and thigh, not on sides; the swellings crepitate; the blood 

 is not dark nor spleen enlarged. 



Treatment. — Prevention is of chief importance. Pasteur made 

 two vaccines. Number one, the weaker, is made by growing bacilli 

 in a current of air at 109° F. for twenty- four hours; number two is 

 prepared in the same manner during twelve days. The weaker, 

 number one, is injected into healthy animals in summer or fall and 

 followed in ten days by the injection of number two. Sick animals 

 may infect a pasture for ten years, but vaccination will permit of 

 pasturage on infected land. Vaccines contain weakened bacilli, but 

 they may regain their original virulence and should not be used in 

 anthrax-free regions, or by the laity. 



The method of inoculation requires minute directions, which 

 may be obtained from manufacturers of the vaccines. Less than 

 one per cent, of animals die from vaccination and the mortality has 

 been reduced to about one half of one per cent, in cattle in countries 

 where anthrax is frequent. 



Animals should be -kept away from pastures which have been 



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