SYMPTOMATIC ANTHRAX. 
411 
SYMPTOMATIC ANTHRAX,* 
By John Faust, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 
Dr. M. R. Trumbower, Chairman of Committee on Dis¬ 
uses, requested me to write a paper on Tuberculosis, and in 
-ply 1 stated that a paper on Symptomatic Anthrax would 
e in place; as to my recollection the Society never took any 
otice of the same, so I will endeavor to bring it before the 
)ciety. 
I wrote about a hundred letters to the profession, and re¬ 
vived a small reply, which will be embodied in the report. 
ANTHRAX FEVER—HISTORICAL. 
Anthrax fever is undoubtedly the oldest known disease 
nong animals. The Bible account of the plague in Egypt 
> given in Exodus 5—refers in the Sixth Plague, verse 9, to 
iis disease. And in Leviticus, mention is made of the fact 
iat the disease can be transmitted to human beings by wear* 
g apparel. The disease described in the First Book of 
omer’s Illiad may be taken to represent anthrax fever. 
Corner has given us a more complete description of an epi- 
-mic of anthrax fever in the Ninth Book of Metamorphose, 
iid also Plutarch, who reports that Rome in the year 740 B. 
• was visited by a very severe epidemic of anthrax fever, 
ionysius of Hali Karnassus, 488 B. C., and Livius, 425 B. C., 
ive examples of anthrax epidemic, when at first pasturing 
irds were affected, then the temple animals and from these 
e priests—then shepherds and farmers, and at last the whole 
)pulation. In the writings of Lukres, 433 B. C., we first 
id the name Ignis sacer given for anthrax ; in those of Col- 
nella— Pastulla. Virgil describes a contagious disease among 
eep which was carried to man by the wearing of the skins 
■ the wool taken from skins of affected animals, and which 
.used blisters to form that went deep into the flesh. Pliny 
ports of a disease of this kind in Gaul at the time of the 
igrations of the nations. 
*A Paper read before the U. S. V. M. A., at Des Moines. 
