SYNOPSIS OF CONTINENTAL VETERINARY JOURNALS. 227 
dertook some experiments in elucidation of the subject, and 
that he countenances the necessity of more of them to com¬ 
pletely elucidate the clinical question which was presented 
to him. After the experiments which have been made at 
the Lyons school, and those which are still in progress 
there, the solution of that question, as concerns diagnosis, 
will be easier than when M. Vernaut addressed his com¬ 
munications to us ... . I inoculated an adult rabbit with 
blood from the anthrax tumours, and it is not dead. All the in¬ 
fected animals succumbed ; they pastured onthemarshyground 
near the Canal of Tinvernais. The animals living in dry 
places near were not affected. Of the diseased calves, some 
were housed at night, while others remained in the pastures. 
A heifer, aged eleven months, having died yesterday, 23rd 
November, at 8 p.m., after twenty-four hours’ sickness, I 
went to-day, at midday, to make a post-mortem examination, 
and found the body distended with gas to a remarkable 
degree, and affected with oedema, involving the left shoulder 
and the neck. Scarifications made in the diseased parts gave 
exit to a gas with a peculiar crackling sound. From the 
muscular tissues, which had a charbon tint, and were infil¬ 
trated with black blood, I took some sanguineous sanies, 
and inoculated in the thigh two young rabbits by incisions 
through the dermis. These two animals did not die. Much 
emains yet to be learned about the etiology of charbon and 
its manifestations or its forms. Why, three weeks ago, after 
continuous rains, did we always find external anthrax 
affecting in calves of a year old instead of splenic fever, which, 
destroys in half an hour ? This disease is of the same nature 
as external charbon, and the two affections are always fatal. 
Why in two places separated from each other by six kilo¬ 
metres do we see in one splenic fever and black quarter in 
the other ? To what is due this difference in the manifesta¬ 
tion of anthrax ? Why does splenic fever last only half an 
hour with heaving of the flanks and haematuria, while black 
quarter may last for two days, with the system visibly 
affected from the commencement, as indicated by general 
prostration and loss of sensibility, which may be observed 
from the first ? So much for questions which require solu¬ 
tion. I believe splenic fever is more contagious and more 
dangerous than black quarter. Last year a cattle owner, 
who skinned an ox which succumbed to this disorder, died 
three days after; he exhibited the following symptoms : 
Absolute loss of appetite, acute fever, and continuous mus¬ 
cular twitchings, without oedema or lividity of the body 
surface being detectable. Now, if we admit that the Bac- 
