=ANTHRAX, OR CHARBON.=--An acute, infectious disease of plant-eating animals, which, under favorable conditions, attacks flesh-eating animals as well. It is caused by a microbe which enters the circulating blood and by multiplication therein causes its rapid destruction, and the death of the animal. The disease is as old as human history. It exists in all countries and in all latitudes. It was formerly very destructive to human life, as well as to animals. There is no disease which attacks more different kinds of animals than anthrax, nor one which is more deadly. Also, there is no disease which is harder to deal with from the sanitary point of view; nor harder to stamp out. The reasons for this will be shown later on. Soil is the prime factor in preserving and propagating the microbe, when it is naturally wet, impermeable, and rich in decomposing animal and vegetable matter. The microbe of anthrax may enter the body by several channels. It may be taken in with the food or drink. It may be breathed into the lungs. It may enter through abraded surfaces on the skin. It may be inoculated into the body by biting insects. There are several forms of the disease and these are determined by the modes of entrance of the virus. One form, which occurs especially in sheep and cattle, at the commencement of an outbreak, and which is characterized by the suddenness of its onset and its high degree of fatality, is known as the apoplectic, or fulminant form. Without showing any previous symptoms, an animal will suddenly be seized with loss of appetite, trembling, uneasiness, irregularity of movements, difficult breathing, blueness of the nostrils, bellowing, convulsions and hemorrhages from the natural openings. Death may occur in a few minutes or in four or five hours. Another type is known as anthrax fever, or internal anthrax. Here we have distinct symptoms, the most important being high fever of from three to four degrees, excitability and restlessness. Blood may ooze in drops from the nose, eyes, or ears, and from inside of the forearm or thigh, in sheep. There will be trembling, prostration, numbness of the loins, thirst, grinding of the teeth, colicky pains, bloating, bloody discharges, palpitation of the heart, difficult breathing, blueness of the visible mucous membranes, jerking of the muscles of the back and neck, and rolling of the eyes. The animal will die in comatose state, or in convulsions, and death will occur in sheep in about a day. Cattle will live from two to five days, and horses from one to six days.