Advantages in Agricultural Production. 
265 
has been written, I trust, to commend it to the thoughtful 
consideration of agriculturists who know a little of science and 
a great deal about practice. 
William E. Bear. 
Thorpe, Riggindale Road, Streatham, S.W. 
THE PREVALENCE OF ANTHRAX IN 
GREAT BRITAIN. 
The returns for the past year indicate that anthrax has been 
more widely spread among animals of the farm in this country 
than in any previous year during which statistics have been 
collected. In explanation of the large increase of reported cases 
it has been suggested that many deaths which have been 
attributed to anthrax were due to other diseases, and the results 
of the examination of specimens sent to the Royal Veterinary 
College lend support to this view. Nevertheless, it is certain 
that anthrax is more extensively distributed throughout this 
country than it was supposed to be, and there is no doubt that 
the obscurity which is associated with the disease on a farm and 
the fatality which always attends its progress have given rise 
to considerable alarm among stock-owners. 
It is known that anthrax depends on the introduction into 
the blood of a minute rod-like body, the Bacillus anthracis , 
the spores of which may be brought on to a farm in many 
ways, and obtain an entrance into an animal’s system through 
any slight abrasion in the skin or mucous membranes. Treat- 
ment of the disease is scarcely ever successful ; in fact, the death 
of the animal follows too quickly on the declaration of the 
disorder to give time for the action of medicines. To prevent 
the extension of the disease by destroying the activity of the 
infecting germ is all that the stock-owner can hope to effect. 
The following observations by Professor McFadyean and 
Professor Brown may be accepted as an important contribution 
towards the attainment of this object. The experimental 
evidence is conclusive and consolatory, proving, as it does, that, 
under certain easily assured conditions, the blood of an animal 
dead of anthrax loses its virulence in a comparatively short 
time ; and it is also satisfactory to know that, as an outcome of 
this inquiry, the most ready and convenient method of disposing 
of carcasses, i.e. by burial, is at the same time the most safe and 
