• 50 
t>. MoEACHRAX. 
in different outbreaks in its outward manifestations. Thus we 
meet with it in the apopletic form, in which death occurs in a few 
minutes without having apparently manifested any observable 
symptoms ; the intermittent form, in which the symptoms are 
more protracted and intermittent; and the carbuncular or eruptive 
form, in which, as in black quarter, we have exudations and ex- 
travasations of blood of a thin dark color, becoming gangrenous. 
That this is a blood disease there is now no doubt. The microscope 
and the science of chemistry have made us familiar with the 
changes which that fluid has undergone, and the existence of cer¬ 
tain organisms (bacteria), whether as a cause or product of the 
disease is not yet satisfactorily determined, nor do we know for 
certain whether they are animals or vegetable organisms. One 
thing we do know, that these organisms are found in the blood in 
all cases of this disease, and that wherever they are found the 
blood loses its plasticity, becomes thin and watery, its serum 
stained with the coloring matter of the corpuscles, and the blood 
putiefies leadily, the poison, whatever it is, seemingly acting as a 
septic ferment. The blood changes take place with great 
1 apidity, consequently death is sudden and certain in the ma¬ 
jority of cases, occurring within forty minutes, without having 
presented any observable symptoms, the cattle generally being 
found dead in their stalls. 
Causes. The principal agents which are said to be either the 
actual cause or the intermediate bearers of the anthrax poison, 
are certain peculiarities of soil, especially those soils in which 
there is a large quantity of decaying vegetable matter. As re- 
maiked by Bollinger, “ An unusual amount of decaying vegetable 
matter in the soil, joined with an excess of moisture, appears to 
furnish the most favorable conditions of life for the poison.” 
Fleming says “ It is most frequent and fatal in regions where 
the soil contains much organic matter in process of decomposition, 
and in those in which, while rich in humus, the land is retentive 
of moisture ; in boggy countries, and marshy or swampy dis¬ 
tricts; and in localities liable to frequent submersion, or in which 
* Sanitary Science and Police. 
