ANTHRAX IN THE PIG. 
597 
escaped which consumed only the scalded skim milk from 
this dairy. On June 11th a young man was attacked in a 
fifth house. He was a lodger, whose landlady w r ent out 
nursing infected children during the day, and probably 
carried the affection home in her clothes at night. On 
July 18th a child took it in a sixth house, into which it 
was apparently introduced by some lodgers, who had arrived 
from one of the infected houses on the 8th. Altogether 
there were twenty cases in seven houses, with two deaths, in 
that locality .—Sanitary Record, 
ANTHRAX IN THE PIG* 
By Henry G. Armstrong, M.R.C.S., Medical Officer of Health, New¬ 
castle-upon-Tyne ; Medical Officer to the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Pever 
Hospital. 
On different occasions I have brought before the Society 
the multiform subject of anthrax as met with in my practice, 
and more than once have shown pathological specimens from 
pigs affected with what is considered to be the same disease. 
As the signs of anthrax in the pig differ considerably from 
those of the disease in other animals, and present many and 
complex varieties in different individuals of, the same species, 
it may be of use briefly to put on record some of my 
experiences on the subject, and to indicate one or two points 
in connection with the specimens I last exhibited, which may 
perhaps help to throw a little light on the real nature of the 
affection, about which there is much difference of opinion. 
Before doing this it may be well, for the sake of such of 
the members of the Society as are not required (like myself) 
to decide on the fitness of flesh for human food, and there¬ 
fore do not study the diseases of animals killed for the table, 
to mention some of the diseases with which anthrax is com¬ 
monly confounded. Erysipelas, scarlatina, enteric (or typhoid) 
fever, and cholera, are names for distinct and easily recog¬ 
nisable affections in the human being, but are all applied in 
the pig to what is probably none of these, and is certainly 
described by many authorities as being anthrax. “ Red soldier” 
and the “ blue sickness ” are among its more common popular 
names. The dealers almost invariably try to make out that 
the skin appearances in such cases are due to cold, and are 
of no moment, and that the pigs have not died (for they do 
die very soon, if not killed in the hope of saving their bacon) 
* Read before the Northumberland and Durham Medical Society. 
