390 
PROF. DESSART. 
that it is better in all points of view to see the living* or dead 
carbuncnlous animals disappear as quickly as possible. 
It is evident that the object in view would be best secured by 
encouraging by indemnity, or other means, the owners of diseased 
animals to have them destroyed at once. It would be wise, in 
our view, in the same sense, to go farther, as is done in case of 
typhus; and this in consequence of various considerations, many 
of which escape the comprehension of sanitary police so-called. 
However, we may ask if there is reason in demanding the 
obligatory (forced) slaughter in case of contaminated animals ? 
Evidently, no. Forced slaughter, applied as a means to prevent 
the transmission of anthrax from diseased to healthy animals, 
cannot be justified. That isolation, with other complementary 
measures, may be sufficient for this, is rendered more probable 
by the fact that the disease kills usually in so short a time. 
Forced slaughter is a measure exceptionally serious, which 
touches the owners of animals in their interests, as well as their 
rights. Such a measure, always odious when it is unnecessary, can 
be justified only when the disease, against which it is directed, 
places in imminent danger the agricultural wealth of a country, 
or invades the public safety.t Anthrax is not included in these 
conditions. 
Destruction of the Cadavers and Bedding .—From the etiology 
of anthrax, well established to-day, it is proved that there is 
almost only one mode of efficacious destruction of carbuncular 
cadavers; this is by fire. The use of concentrated mineral 
acids leave usually, parts which are untouched. Too large 
quantities would be required for complete success. They might 
be employed, however, if the cadavers were in close proximity to 
*We are justified in concluding from Toussaiut’s experiments that the 
sporulatioD or endogenesis exterior to the segmentation of the batonnets, that 
is to say, the production of the germ-corpuscles, takes place in the living animal 
economy within eighteen hours, at least, alter the entrance of the leptothrix 
into the circulation. It is then of great utility to slaughter the patients as quickly 
as possible, in order to prevent the formation of those germ-corpuscles, whose 
life possesses such a powerful resistance. We have seen how in the state of 
mycelium the microbe dies easily under the influence of ordinary causes, 
t Such as typhus or hydrophobia. 
