762 
W. H. DALRYMPLE. 
in many cases recover without any medical help—survived the 
treatment, they were firmly of the opinion that they had suc¬ 
ceeded in curing the disease. Such is an example of the state 
of our knowledge regarding some varieties of disease and its 
treatment. The genuine outbreak, however, which I previously 
mentioned and wish now to describe, has perhaps done more to 
bring into prominence the regular graduate and the veterinary 
profession in our section of the country and to upset the calcula¬ 
tions of the illiterate u charbon doctor, 1 ’ with his vaunted u sure 
shot V charbon nostrums and reduce him to his proper place in 
the eyes of the intelligent class of people than anything that has 
happened within the last decade. It has been said that it takes 
a calamity to wake our people up, and the recent epizootic could 
be viewed as little short of that. The first indication I had of 
this outbreak was a dispatch from the general manager of a 
large cotton-planting syndicate, owning something like thirteen 
plantations, and four to six hundred head of mules. On one of 
the outlying properties, which was first affected, the disease was 
in a most virulent form, and the ultimate loss on this place was 
nearly if not altogether ioo per cent. Probably the most inter¬ 
esting point is that the outbreak was of cutaneous or carbuncu- 
lar form, with flies as the transmission agents. The disease 
spread with such rapidity that it was in a very short space of 
time to be found doing its deadly work in some eight or ten 
parishes. The people were almost panic-stricken, and in their 
helpless condition, for want of intelligent information and from 
being largely in the hands of. the “ charbon doctors,” who ex¬ 
pected to reap a rich harvest, their efforts were directed solely to 
the treatment of individual cases, without the slightest idea of 
trying to stay the ravages of the disease by any attempt at any 
modern system of sanitary science. Charbonous carcasses were 
simply hauled out to the woods, where range animals were graz¬ 
ing, infecting the surrounding country, besides presenting labo¬ 
ratories where flies of various specimens could obtain fresh virus 
for distribution. This dangerous procedure was adopted in the 
early part of the outbreak, with the result that animals of all 
