The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-11-27
;Mkt Earn.
THE ANTHRAX EPIZOOTY.

At . meeting of the American Public
Health Association at Baltimore, Md,
last week, James Law, of Cornell Uni.
versity, New York, read the following
paper on the above subject:
The disease appeared on the estate
of James w. Wadsworth, on the Street
Farm, one and ahalf miles northwest of
Avon, New York. The afflicted herd
consisted of 277 steers, which had been
purchased in Canada at various times
during last Spring up to the first week
in May. All went we'll until the first
week in August, when five steers died
suddenly and unaccountably. The re-
mainder continued to thrive rapidly
until the first week in September, when
they began again to sicken, and died at
a rate varying from three to eight every
twenty-four hours At the date of my
visit-Sept. IS and 14-forty had per-
ished, including the five deaths during
August, and fifty more were seriously
ILL., Others selected from the herd on
the slightest suspicion, and so we'll and
lively that they were caught and handled
with difficulty, had their temperature
elevated to 103 deg, los deg. and
even LOT deg. Fahrenheit. In some the
course of the malady was short. From
condition of apparent health they
would suddenly drop behind the herd,
and after lying dull and painting for
some time, would die in commissions
not more than an hour after the seizure.
Nhn NJ hor wiz lrpnnn1 nf tho
herd, moved stltfly and listlessly , crop
ped the grass rarely, and as if from
habit rather than appetite, arched the
back, dropped head and ears, and show
ed an inclination to lie down. The
ewes became dull, the horns usually hot
at the roots, the muzzle variously moist
or dry, and the breathing, pulse, and
temperature natural or only slightly
increased. The visible mucous men,
branes showed dusky brown or vel
lowish tint, and blood often escaped
with the fGces, or, less frequently with
the urine or from the nose In some
carcasses, Immediately after death, the
blood oozed from the skin, especially
along the lower part of the trunk and
inner sides of the limbs. 1t invariably
escaped from the dark red and tumid
rectum. The blood coagulated loosely
and imperfectly, the mucous folds Of
the rectum We're of deep port wine
hue, and the spleen engorged almost to
rupture with dark, diffluent blood
The dusky hue of the mucous men,
branes pervaded the adipose tissues
as well and peechi9 were abundant
throughout the body. Cadaverous
rigidity was little marked, and lasted
but short time. Flies collected on
the body in immense numbers, even
before death, evidently attracted by the
odor of decomposition.
The manager of the farm and two
German workmen who had opened
several of the carcasses were suffering
from malignant pustules The first
symptom in all these had been the
eruption in small pustules on the hand
This increased to vesicle, bursted, and
dried up, while a new crop appeared
around the point of desiccation. The
two elder men, aged from thirty to forty,
had considerable eysiplatoid utilization
of the hand and arm, with high fever,
nausea, great languor, and muscular
pain. They ultimately did well, how
ever, under the care of DR.. Nesbit, who
deeply cauterized the sores, had the
arms slung and painted with iodine,
and administered bark and iron. The
third victim, very robust man of
about twenty, scarcely suffered except
from the local eruption, which at the
time of my visit appeared as number
of raw sores upon hand and arm, each
about half an inch in diameter, with
an elevated red congested margin, but
healthy, suppurating center This
man adopted no surgical nor medicinal
treatment, but threw off the poison
apparently by his own inherent vigor
and Htality.
The points of special interest are,
first, the development of malignant pus-
tule in man as the result of incubation
from the diseased steers, and, second,
the conditions which appeared to con-
tribute to the outbreak among the cattle.
The first point has been sufficiently
noticed. Of the pathogenic influences
affecting the bullocks we may notice,
first, plethora. The stock came on the
farm in April and the first week in
May, in the lowest imaginable condi-
ton. They were fed first on corn and
atterward on the luxuriant grass of the
rich bottom lands of the Genesee river,
and laid on flesh with almost unprece-
denied rapidity. At the period of the
attack they were in a very high condi-
ton, and the most plethoric were the
first to be seized. The blood, in short,
was charged to the highest degree with
the effete products of rapid tissue
change, and presented the best possible
field for the propagation and growth of
organic poisons.
.. AN 1MPERvIoUs SUBsoIL.-The
stock had the run Of three Enclosures,
two meadows dotted with fine old
shadow trees, and cedar swamp. All
had subsoil Of impervious clay, which
approached nearest to the swamp and
the lower meadow, but lay at depth
of several feet in the upper meadow.
lilo idHu "do OSCllO"cu ny .lHS run
every Spring, and there being no nat
ural nor artificial drainage, the water
had to escape by evaporation mainly.
3. RICH SURFACE Soil AND ORGANIC
EMANATIoN.-The surface soil was a
rich alluvium, and was improved, if
possible, yearly by the deposits from
the regular Spring foundations. Dur
ing the Summer, therefore, there were
not only the materials for producing
the richest vegetation, but for the dis
engagement of abundant organic ema-
nations from the decomposng remains
of animals and vegetables. In the alb
sence of drainage, all that the vegeta-
ton failed to utilize must pass off as
malaria, and the period of the outbreak
was toward the end of the hot season,
when the ground must have attained
its maximum of dryness, and when
decomposition was taking place at the
greatest depth, and consequently in