188 
PROF. DE8SART, 
the etiology and nature of the carbuncular process lias to-day 
disappeared. Science has succeeded in clearly establishing the 
distinction between true carbuncular affections and those which 
possess only some more or less marked resemblances to them.* 
Amongst the several diseases grouped by empirical observa¬ 
tions under the collective designation of anthracoid, there are but 
few which present the pathognomonic sign of anthrax. Evidently 
these last are those which are referred to in the laws of 1867. 
^ ■ 31 ' 
Charbon is a parasitic disease. It is produced by the presence 
in the blood, and other 7nedia of the animal economy, of a my- 
crophite called cay'buncular bacteridie. Most of the mammifera 
and domestic animals are subject to it. We will, however, limit 
our symptomatic description of anthrax as we meet it in the 
horse, the ox, the sheep and in swine. We nevertheless, must 
make a special reserve in respect to the swine species. As it 
seems that diseases of small hogs, or properly, pigs, called car¬ 
buncular angina , gangrenous erysipela , etc., though considered 
to this day as manifestations of anthrax, were of a different na¬ 
ture, probably of septic or anhematosical nature.f At any rate, 
in case of difference of opinion as to the nature of these affections, 
the presence or absence of bacteridies in the blood or lymph of 
the patient’s wound settles the question. At best, one could 
have recourse to experimental inoculation. 
But before giving the symptoms of anthrax, some preliminary 
data essentially necessary to its exact knowledge must here find a 
place. 
The contagium (virus) of anthrax is constituted by the parasite 
itself, which produces the affection ; that is, by bacteridie. It 
has just been demonstrated that the microphyton is but an ulti- 
* The observations of Delafond, Brauell, Koch, Davaiue, Joubert and more 
recently, especially the important discoveries aud experiments of Pasteur, 
Toussaint, and Hans Buchner have thrown the greatest light upon carbuncular 
diseases. The etiology of anthrax rests, thanks to the last investigators, upon a 
solid, material base, and to-day the disease has limits as well defined as those of 
hydrophobia, scabies, small-pox, etc., etc. 
t It has been proved experimentally that pigs are refractory to anthrax (Re- 
cherches, sur la maladio charbonneuss, Paris, 1^79, by H. Toussaint ) Is it 
equally so in ordinary circumstances? 
