Anthrax, Sfc, made at the Brown Institution. 
37 
due to infection from the wool, for those who sufiered from it 
were those who had especially to do with the wool or hair in 
its raw state, such as the unpackers and sorters. The nature 
of this disease was not understood ; by some it was regarded as 
due to the decomposition of animal matter adhering to the 
wool, by others as produced by the inhalation of particles of 
the hair and wool-dust, giving rise to a low form of inflam- 
mation of the lungs. It would be out of place here to dis- 
cuss fully the precise conditions and symptoms of the disease as 
affecting the human subject. But, as I hope to show, the facts 
revealed by the inquiry have a very important bearing on the 
diseases of cattle, in addition to their immediate value in rela- 
tion to the present inquiry. 
The fatal forms of disease observed among the wool-workers, 
especially the sorters, may be said to be three : first, a rapidly 
fatal blood-poisoning without any definite symptoms ; second, 
a form in which the lungs, and sometimes the throat, are 
especially affected ; and, thirdly, ordinary malignant pustule. 
The fact that all these are simply various manifestations of 
the same poison, anthrax, has been absolutely determined by 
the investigation recently made ; and these forms of human 
disease are characterized by symptoms analogous to those seen 
in cattle and horses in splenic fever or charbon. It was there- 
fore evident that the study of the causes and mode of infection 
in the human subject might throw some light on the analogous 
conditions in animals, and unexpected revelations have shown 
that not only may the disease be directly propagated to animals 
by the infected wool, but that there exists in constant operation 
in connection with these factories a means of distributing the 
disease to farms throughout the country. 
The kind of wool or hair which is found to be most deadly 
in its effects — the largest number of cases occurring amongst 
those who have to sort it — is the mohair which comes from the 
high lands in Asia Minor, but cases have also occurred in con- 
nection with similar wool from the Cape. That the dangerous 
parts of the wool are derived from the carcasses of animals which 
have died from disease is known from the condition in which 
the wool is found, portions of skin and blood being adherent 
to the fleece, sometimes the epidermis being found covering 
nearly the whole inner surface of the fleece. That the disease 
from which some, at least, of the animals have died is splenic 
fever is not only demonstrated by the effects of using the wool, 
but is known from the fact that this disease is widely preva- 
lent, and sometimes occurs in severe epidemics in the districts 
from which the wool comes, and that all fleeces of animals 
dying from disease are indiscriminately collected and sold. 
