fear of his impending fate. Happily the inevitable issue is not long
delayed, death usually occurring in from two to four days from the
onset. The symptoms of the disease are so characteristic that there is
no difficulty in diagnosis. The only condition with which it is liable
to be confused is the variety of cephalic tetanus in which the muscles
of deglutition are specially involved--the so-called tetanus
hydrophobicus.

_Prophylaxis._--The bite of an animal suspected of being rabid should be
cauterised at once by means of the actual or Paquelin cautery, or by a
strong chemical escharotic such as pure carbolic acid, after which
antiseptic dressings are applied.

It is, however, to Pasteur's _preventive inoculation_ that we must look
for our best hope of averting the onset of symptoms. "It may now be
taken as established that a grave responsibility rests on those
concerned if a person bitten by a mad animal is not subjected to the
Pasteur treatment" (Muir and Ritchie).

This method is based on the fact that the long incubation period of the
disease admits of the patient being inoculated with a modified virus
producing a mild attack, which protects him from the natural disease.

_Treatment._--When the symptoms have once developed they can only be
palliated. The patient must be kept absolutely quiet and free from all
sources of irritation. The spasms may be diminished by means of chloral
and bromides, or by chloroform inhalation.

ANTHRAX

Anthrax is a comparatively rare disease, communicable to man from
certain of the lower animals, such as sheep, oxen, horses, deer, and
other herbivora. In animals it is characterised by symptoms of acute
general poisoning, and, from the fact that it produces a marked
enlargement of the spleen, is known in veterinary surgery as "splenic
fever."

The _bacillus anthracis_ (Fig. 27), the largest of the known pathogenic
bacteria, occurs in groups or in chains made up of numerous bacilli,
each bacillus measuring from 6 to 8 [micron] in length. The organisms
are found in enormous numbers throughout the bodies of animals that have
died of anthrax, and are readily recognised and cultivated. Sporulation
only takes place outside the body, probably because free oxygen is
necessary to the process. In the spore-free condition, the organisms
are readily destroyed by ordinary germicides, and by the gastric juice.
The spores, on the other hand, have a high degree of resistance. Not
only do t