APPENDICES. 
333- 
adopted was the administration of arsenic in gradually increasing 
doses until symptoms of poisoning set in ; out of five animals 
attacked three recovered and two died. Mr. Hepburn had no 
opportunity of making a post-mortem examination. 
With regard to the above method of treatment I may remark 
that I have doubts about the ordinary preparations of arsenic in the 
doses given effecting a cure within a reasonable time. My grounds 
for this statement are that I have had several elephants under 
arsenical treatment for many months. Blood smears were taken 
daily from the affected animals and examined. It was observed that 
the period of time which elapsed from the disappearance of the 
parasites from the peripheral circulation and their reappearance 
therein extended in more than one case to over three months. 
Unless therefore careful daily examinations of the blood are made 
for a lengthened period after apparent cure wrong conclusions may 
be arrived at. In cases which are observed early, i.e., when the 
animals appear healthy and in good condition, provided they are 
rested or at m.ost put only to light work the exhibition of arsenic 
undoubtedly keeps them^ in a more or less stationary condition as 
regards general appearance and bodily health. [See Part V, page 3 1 o.) 
Appendix I. — Note on Infective Diseases with special 
REFERENCE TO ANTHRAX. 
Note I . — In order to enable the non-professional reader to realise 
how infectious disease is spread I have thought it advisable to add 
a short summary of the causes of infective diseases. 
Infective diseases are caused by minute organisms known popu- 
larly as microbes. A microbe is a unicellular vegetable organism 
belonging to the class schizomycetes or fission fungi. Under the 
microscope these organisms are seen to adopt certain definite forms 
and appear as small spherical bodies, short thick rods or long thin 
filaments. In size they are exceedingly minute, many being not more 
than -g-g-lQ^ of an inch in length. Some like the anthrax organism 
are only capable of existing and growing in the presence of oxygen ; 
others die if exposed to the air. These organisms multiply by 
simple fission, that is to say the organism if placed in favourable 
surroundings so far as nutrition and growth are concerned simply 
divides into two. Thus in a very short time a single organism may 
produce a horde. Outside the animal body some microbes produce 
what are known as spores. A spore is not a multiplication form but 
simply a resting stage of the organism adopted when its surroundings 
are unfavourable to its growth and nutrition. When these spores 
gain entrance to the animal body they again take on the form of the 
