240  Annual  Report  for  1004  of  Royal  Veterinary  College. 
during  recent  years  has  by  some  people  been  accepted  as 
evidence  that  a more  reliable  method  of  destrojdng  the  germs 
present  in  anthrax  carcasses  is  urgently  required.  The  fact 
is,  however,  the  increased  prevalence  of  anthrax  cannot  he 
satisfactorily  explained  by  supposing  that  the  disease  is  carried 
on  from  one  outbreak  to  another  by  germs  liberated  from 
buried  anthrax  carcasses.  If  that  were  the  correct  explanation 
a large  proportion  of  the  outbreaks  would  be  recurrent  in  fields 
or  other  places  containing  the  graves  of  anthrax  animals ; such, 
however,  is  not  the  case,  for,  as  previously  stated,  a large 
proportion  of  the  outbreaks  in  this  country  are  isolated, 
and  there  is  rarely  forthcoming  any  evidence  to  show  that 
there  is  a causal  connection  between  two  successive  outbreaks 
on  the  same  farm,  or  at  least,  any  such  connection  between 
what  may  be  called  an  anthrax  grave  and  a later  outbreak. 
Certain  experiments  which  were  made  in  France  by  Pasteur 
appear  to  be  responsible  for  the  belief  that  burial  is  a highly 
dangerous  method  of  disposing  of  ajithrax  carcasses,  but  in 
reality  these  experiments  do  not  justify  any  such  conclusion 
regarding  the  effect  of  i)rompt  burial  in  this  country.  What 
Pasteur  proved  was  that  earth  collected  from  certain  places 
which  had  been  used — many  of  them  repeatedly — for  the  burial 
of  anthrax  carcasses  contained  the  spores  of  that  disease,  and 
since  worm-castings  found  over  those  graves  were  also  proved 
to  be  capable  of  infecting  animals  with  anthrax  it  was  assumed 
that  the  earth-worms  had  been  instrumental  in  bringing  to 
the  surface  anthrax  germs  which  had  been  buried  with  the 
carcasses.  As  a matter  of  fact,  however,  the  results  in  these 
cases  may  have  been  due  not  to  spores  liberated  from  the 
buried  carcasses  and  brought  to  the  surface  by  earth-worms,  but 
to  spores  which  were  left  at  the  surface  of  the  ground  by  the 
skinning  and  opening  of  the  carcasses,  which  at  that  time  was 
very  commonly  practised  prior  to  burial.  But,  in  any  case, 
these  experiments  cannot  justifiably  be  cited  as  proof  that  the 
prompt  burial  of  an  intact  anthrax  carcass  in  Great  Britain 
involves  any  danger  whatever  of  subsequent  soil  contamina- 
tion. It  is  a well-established  fact  that  when,  in  a tempei’ate 
climate,  an  unopened  anthrax  carcass  is  promptly  buried  at  a 
depth  of  a few  feet  no  spores  can  afterwards  be  brought  from 
it  to  the  surface  by  earth-worms  or  any  other  agency,  for  the 
A'ery  sufficient  reason  that  no  spores  are  formed  in  a carcass  in 
those  conditions.  In  order  that  the  bacilli  present  in  the  body 
may  be  able  to  form  spores  two  conditions  are  absolutely 
necessary,  the  first  being  that  the  temperature  must  be  not  less 
than  about  70"  F.,  and  the  second  that  the  bacilli  must  be  freely 
exposed  to  the  air.  Both  these  conditions  are,  of  course,  denied 
to  bacilli  buried  with  the  carcass  in  this  country,  with  the  result 
