244 
REPORTS OF CASES. 
The circumstances of the outbreaks here are all the same, viz.: 
The animals on being turned out this spring from their close pens 
mto large pastures commenced to show their joy by running rap¬ 
idly around. Then some of them would suddenly stop, lie 'down 
and show symptoms of anthrax, from which they would die in 
fiom six to twenty-four hours after being turned loose. Probably 
ninety per cent, of those attacked would die within six hours and 
ton percent, live from twelve to twenty-four hours, and the trouble 
would be at an end—no more anthrax in that herd. Now, does 
not this confirm Dr. McLean’s theory? But where did the an¬ 
thrax germ come from in the above cases ? This is a question of 
the etiology of this disease difficult to answer, at least until we 
learn more of its history. 
On many of these farms the pig pens were new and clean; 
the pastures were on the virgin soil; there were no animals near 
which had been introduced from other localities. The surface of 
the soil was not such as would favor the development of anthrax, 
the farmers living on high, dry land, with no standing water or 
sloughs suffered to exist. On the wet bottom lands, yearly over¬ 
flowed, and where a person can smell the malarial effluvia miles 
off, no cases of anthrax were observed, but here the swine are 
running loose nearly the year round ; another point to strengthen 
Dr. McLean’s theory. On these low lands anthrax is a bona fide 
resident, but its ravages are not so heavy now as they formerly 
were, although no precautions are taken by farmers to bury, burn, 
or otherwise destroy the cadavers. We should be led to think that 
the swine here would be more exposed to contagion than on the 
dry land; but, for once, this rule does not apply, or it may be that 
the constant running around tends to lessen the development of 
the bacteria. 
Pi of. Nocart, of the Alfort Veterinary College, in Avch. Vet!. 
No. 3, 12, asserts that anthrax has in several cases been intro¬ 
duced on farms where it formerly was unknown, by artificial 
means, such as dried blood, &c. May not the disease also have 
been introduced on such farms by some similar means ? What 
these may be I am unable to determine, although the strictest in¬ 
quiries have been made. 
