PREVENTION, SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT IO , 



due to the B. anthracis, which thrives in rich, moist, inundated soils 

 contaminated by the discharges or bodies of anthrax patients, and in 

 warm seasons (September and June) or climates. The anthrax 

 bacillus is a spore-bearing organism and while multiplying by divi- 

 sion in the blood, outside of the body the bacilli germinate by spores 

 which live for years, even after drying. The bacilli, especially the 

 spores, gain entrance into animals directly from the infected soils 

 in food and water by the digestive tract ; also by the skin through 

 abrasions, the use of infected cleaning utensils, bites of infected 

 insects, and by the lungs through inhalation of infected dust. 

 Cattle, sheep and horses are the chief sufferers; less commonly, 

 goats, pigs, cats, hogs and dogs. 



Man is affected with the same forms of disease as cattle, but 

 more often with a local inoculation (malignant pustule or car- 

 buncle). Handlers of hides, hair, wool, tanners, butchers and at- 

 tendants of sick animals are subject to anthrax, as curriers, wool 

 sorters, mattress-makers. 



Symptoms. — These are characterized by rapid fatality (80 to 

 90 per cent.) due chiefly to the effects of hemorrhagic effusions 

 in the internal organs; to edema and local infection of the skin; 

 and to loss of oxygen (asphyxia, cyanosis) through the enormous 

 growth of the bacilli. Usually numbers of animals are attacked 

 about the same time. The symptoms are often insufficient to afford 

 a positive diagnosis, which is confirmed by autopsy ; by inoculation 

 of a sheep, guinea-pig or rabbit under the skin with blood from the 

 liver of a suspected animal ; and by finding the specific bacilli in the 

 blood. 



The symptoms may be classified into groups, any one of which 

 may predominate singly, or in combination in individual cases. 

 Thus the (1) apoplectic, (2) cerebral, (3) abdominal and (4) 

 thoracic, are recognized as internal forms; while externally 

 (5) carbuncles and edema occur. In addition, a form of carbuncle 

 —as papules and vesicles— appears on the tongue, palate, cheeks, 

 pharynx and larvnx. 



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