The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-17
ANTHRAX APPEARS|N CITY AND ALARMS HEALTH AUTHORITIES Five Cows Have Died in
 Last Week of Deadly
 Disease CUNNINGHAM URGES
 PREVENTIVE ACTION Malady Is as Fatal to Humans as It Is to Cattle and One Man Has Contracted It-Action Prob ably Today

CHleSs uldSllc acton IS taken at once, Birmingham faces an exceedingly seri- ous situation from anthrax
 Five cows in the past week have died
 under suspicious circumstances. Four of
 them examinations conclusively show died from the deadly anthrax. One hu- man during the week has contracted the disease.
 The health department states that drastic preventive procedure at once must be taken. If the disease once gets
 foothold, they state, no one can fore
 tell the consequences.
 Anthrax is known as probably the worlds most deadly disease. Medical men admit they know no cure for it. Its fatal outcome is almost a ceNainty.
 It seems to be properly a bovine mal- ady, but humans are susceptible to its ravages and it is just as deadly to man as to cattle.
 Died in Same NeighborhOOd
 All of the five cows in question have
 died in the same neighborhood. The man who contracted it is believed to
 have done so from skinning one of the dead animals. Dr. R. M. Cunningham city health officer, states that as far as is known the disease is spread In three ways:
 From contact with the diseased flesh From breathing dust containing the germs
 From eating matter containing the germs
 Dr. Cunningham states that as far as the medical world is able to ascer. tain, the germ is not transmitted from COW to human through the milk se- crted by the glands of a diseased cow It can be transmitted to humans however, he states through the milk when the disease germs may fall into the milk pail off the animal while in
 the process of milking or through dust l circulating in the barn. pr. Cunningham yesterday appealed
 to the city commission for an ordinance compelling dairymen and all cattle
 owners to report immediately to the
 health department all sick and dead
 cattle. The department would then sec that all dead cattle are immediately
 burned and all sick cattle properly cared for.
 l He asks further for an ordinance giving the health department author l ity to quarantine dairies having an trax infected herds and prohibit them from selling milk or cattle until
 the disease is eradicated The disease is spread, stated Dr. Cum
 nlngham, by buzzards or rodents eating dead animals who had the disease and by other means similar to the manner in which hog cholera is spread. He stated one of the cows which had died with the disease during the week had been found in creek where she had been dragged by the owner. and that the water passing this infected carcass would be such as to infect the Mississippi river This thing is worse than the war if it gets started,' he told the commission. '"It is worse than yellow fever or anything else and it must be stopped now" Boyd Prepares Ordinance City Attorney Boyd is preparing an or dinance to compel cattle owners to mo- tfy the health department immediately
 when cattle die or take sick, and it prob- ably will be passed by the commission to- day in recessed session. Dr. Cunningham states there is no sure way of telling when a COW has anthrax until after she dies, when the germs easily discOv- cred
 He states that the disease is largely
 mystery to medical men; that they know very little about it except it's deadly record of fatalities.
 Webster's dictionary defines anthrax as follows: "An infectious, and usually fatal bacterial disease of animals, es- pecially cattle and sheep, and occasion ally of man, to whom it may be trans-
 mitteG by inoculation It is character ized bg alterations of the skin, enlarge ment of the spleen and general collapse"