388 
PROF. DESSART. 
certain time, return to the surface. This return is rendered pos¬ 
sible by several circumstances, such as the visits of animals, 
which dig the ground which is used for burying; the running of 
water; the ascending force of underground gases; and, lastly, 
the intervention of earth-worms, which, by feeding upon carbun- 
culous cadavers, swallow at the same time a great number of 
germs which resist digestion. They are found intact in the 
earthy residues which fill the intestines of these worms, and they 
are thrown off with the dejections. This fact was proved by M. 
Pasteur. It shows evidently that the earth-worms are the true 
carriers of anthrax. 
However, pastures and fodders, as well as waters which wash 
them off, being thus contaminated by the mycrophites and their 
germs, these small organisms are taken in with the food and 
drink, or inhaled with the air where they are suspended. These 
microbs are in this way inoculated , that is, introduced into the 
circulation through solutions of continuity of the internal tegu¬ 
ment. We have already shown by what circumstances these so¬ 
lutions of continuity principally take place. 
Such is the etiology of anthrax in the majority of cases. It 
clearly indicates what medical policy must be established against 
that disease. But it is also necessary, with this in view, to con¬ 
sider that anthrax may also be transmitted through other means 
besides those actually exposed. The manure of diseased animals 
may also infect pastures upon which it is thrown. The presence 
of the bacteridian micrococci unaltered by digestive fluids, has re 
cently been demonstrated in the droppings of infected animals. 
Healthy animals, with sores on the skin, may evidently con¬ 
tract the disease through their contact with diseased subjects 
or with any objects or substances soiled with bloody saliva, 
dejections, or other matters coming from diseased individuals or 
their cadavers. 
But can contagion from a distance take place ? Most authors 
even amongst those whose writings are more recent, admit the 
possibility of this mode of contagion. It is denied only by a few. 
At any rate, microbiotie nature of anthrax is not a sufficient 
reason to discard that possibility. It, then, would be imprudent 
