INCIDENCE OF ANTHRAX IN STOCK IN AUSTRALIA. 59 
_are so insistent on obtaining the destruction by fire of 
carcases dead of Anthrax. 
Reason for the Decline of Anthrax. 
Looking at the past and present distribution of Anthrax 
in Australia it must be evident that certain naturally occur- 
ing inhibitive factors have been obviously active. The 
disease was first reported near Sydney, and this fact was 
confirmed by the Commission of 1851. Then it appeared far 
inland on the Lachlan and Castlereagh. Ifit ever infected 
the intervening country it can only have been for a com- 
paratively short period. Over the roads from Sydney to 
Bathurst and Sydney to Goulburn must have travelled 
hundreds of thousands of head of stock, horses, cattle and 
sheep, from the Anthrax infected area of the County of 
Cumberland, but Anthrax is unheard of to-day along those 
roads, and in the country through which they pass. During 
periods of drought sheep from what were and are Anthrax 
infected districts are removed for agistment to other areas, 
as for instance the snow lease country of Kosciusko and 
the Monaro, in enormous numbers, while cattle from the 
west and north-west, some at least of which must come 
from Anthrax areas, pour down into the coast, and yet this 
relief country remains and always has remained free from 
Anthrax. It is evident that moisture alone is not the 
deciding factor, since the coastal country, especially in 
the north, has a much heavier rainfall than the country in 
which Anthrax is most prevalent. Nor is heat alone the 
controlling factor, since the north-west plains, and the 
country north of the Darling River are quiteas hot and no 
drier than the country to the south which is infected. 
Over the western part of the State, the low rainfall and 
dry heat may sufficiently explain the fact that Anthrax is 
non-existent, but what the factor may be which has led to 
the prevalence of Anthrax in the first place and its subse- 
