266 The Prevalence of Anthrax in Great Britain. 
effectual. The apprehensions which have been hitherto enter- 
tained in regard to the risk of the contamination of the soil by- 
buried carcasses need no longer exist, always provided that the 
very simple precautions suggested to prevent the escape of 
blood are strictly observed. Contamination of the soil is usually' 
the result of the morbid materials which are distributed over its 
surface, and not of the substances put underneath it. 
Ed. 
I. — On the Disappearance of the Anthrax Bacillus 
after Death. 
That anthrax bacilli, in certain circumstacces, rapidly dis- 
appear from the blood and organs of animals dead of the disease 
is a fact not so well known as it ought to be. Ignorance of it 
is accountable for some mistakes made in diagnosis by those who 
have resort to microscopic examination in suspected cases, and 
it is further accountable for a great deal of unnecessary alarm 
regarding the alleged spread of anthrax from places in which 
animals dead of anthrax have been buried. 
When a cow or sheep dead of anthrax is opened immediately 
after death, the bacilli which are the cause of the disease are found 
unmixed with other germs in the blood all over the body, and in 
special abundance in the spleen. It is mainly during the last 
few hours of life that the complete invasion of the blood takes 
place, and it might be supposed that the germs in the blood 
would continue to multiply even after death. Such, however, 
is not the case. As soon as the breath has left the animal, 
growth and multiplication of the bacilli cease, because the germs 
of anthrax belong to the class of so-called aerobes, for the growth 
of which oxygen is strictly necessary. During the life of the 
animal that harbours them the bacilli obtain the necessary 
oxygen from the same source as the animal cells — viz. from the 
blood, which becomes charged with oxygen in passing through 
the lungs. But as soon as respiration ceases the supply of 
oxygen is cut off, and the growth of the bacilli is promptly 
arrested. 
But in the blood of an animal dead of anthrax the bacilli do 
not merely cease to grow or multiply — they degenerate and die. 
The alimentary canal of the sheep, ox, and horse always contains 
large numbers of putrefactive bacteria, which, during life, are 
unable to penetrate into the blood or tissues, but immediately 
after death these bacteria rapidly make their way into the wall 
of the bowel, and gain access to the blood-vessels, along which 
they soon spread over the whole body. Chief among these 
