ANTHRAX. :

earth surrounding the corpse and then deposited the
spores in their excrement at remote areas (Pasteur), or to
currents of moisture in the soil. Koch seems, however,
to have demonstrated the fallacy of the theories by show-
ing that the conditions under which the bacilli find them-
selves in buried cadavers are exactly opposed to those
favorable to fructification or sporulation, and that in all
probability the majority of bacteria suffer the same fate
as the animal cells, and disintegrate, especially if the ani-
mal be buried at a depth of two or three meters.

Frankel points out particularly that no infection of the
soil by the dead animal could be worse than the pollution
of its surface by the bloody stools and urine, rich in
bacilli, discharged upon it by the animal before death,
and that in all probability it is the live, and not the dead,
animals that are to be blamed as sources of infection.

As every animal affected with anthrax is a source of
danger to the community in which it lives, to the men
who handle it as well as the animals who browse beside
it, such animals, as soon as the diagnosis is made, should
be killed, and, together with the hair and skin, be burned.
When this is impracticable, Frankel recommends that
they be buried to a depth of at least 1^-2 meters, so
that the sporulation of the bacilli is impossible. The
dejecta should also be carefully disinfected with 5 per
cent, carbolic-acid solution.

Of course, animals can be infected through wounds.
This mode of infection is, however, more common
among men, who suffer from the. local disease mani-
fested as the malignant carbuncle, than among animals.

Occasionally bacilli are encountered presenting all the
morphological and cultural characteristics of the anthrax
bacillus, but devoid of any disease-producing power—
Bacillus anthracoides, etc. Exactly what relation they
may bear to the anthrax bacillus is uncertain. They
may be entirely different organisms, or they may be in-
dividuals whose pathogeny has been lost through unfa-
vorable environment.