June 1895.] 



ANTHRAX. 



21 



According to the severity and suddenness of the attack, the 

 post-mortem appearances will vary in degree, but they are 

 tolerably uniform in kind. Under the skin there are usually 

 patches of effused blood, and a considerable quantity of viscid 

 serous fluid will be seen in those parts which were swollen during 

 life. If the cavities of the chest and abdomen are examined, 

 some red serous fluid generally escapes. The spleen is enlarged 

 to three or four times its proper size and is of a deep purple or 

 black colour, soft and easily broken down. Effused blood is also 

 found in masses under the kidnej-s, and red patches are seen in 

 various parts of the serous membranes. The lining membrane 

 of the intestines is often congested, and the contents are gene- 

 rally mixed with blood; sometimes, indeed, the intestinal canal is 

 almost filled with that fluid. 



The symptoms and post-mortem appearances which have been 

 described may, as a rule, be accepted as evidence of the existence 

 of anthrax. But it is very desirable to avoid opening the carcase 

 of an animal which has died of anthrax. The bacillus may be 

 detected by putting a drop of blood from the ear or foofc on a 

 glass slide, covering it with a piece of thin glass, and examining 

 it with a magnifying power of at least 400 diameters. The thin 

 rods will appear like short pieces of fine thread crossing each 

 other in every direction, and enclosing the blood corpuscles. 

 This examination may be conducted in the shed or pasture, but 

 in the laboratory staining processes are employed. 



Procedure. 



The healthy animals on the pasture or other place where the 

 outbreak occurred should be moved under proper restrictions to 

 a convenient place for isolation, and should be examined by a 

 veterinary surgeon every day for a week. If a rise of tem- 

 perature is discovered in any of the isolated animals they should, 

 as far as practicable, be removed from the rest of the herd until 

 they have recovered. 



Slaughter, by a Local Authority, of healthy animals in 

 contact is only justifiable under special circumstances, i.e., where 

 the animals are fat and fit for the butcher, or where the animals 

 are few in number and of little value, or in outbreaks where 

 the disease is spreading rapidly and there are no means of proper 

 isolation. 



Antiseptics, such as hyposulphite of soda, have been admi- 

 nistered to the in-contact animals with apparent advantage. 

 Medical treatment of animals should, however, only be carried 

 out under the advice and direction of a veterinary surgeon, 

 and with regard to this and other preventive measures it may 

 be said that it is impossible to determine the degree of efficacy 

 which they possess, owing to the fact that anthrax frequently 

 ceases after the loss of a single animal. 



Inoculation on the system recommended by M. Pasteur, 

 could not be adopted except by an expert accustomed to operate. 



