swelling or
carbuncle is stained yellow or bluish, and is not infrequently swollen and
doughy to the touch. The carbuncle itself rarely grows larger than a pea or
a small nut, and is but slightly painful.
Anthrax swellings or edemas, already described as occurring in cattle, may
also be found in man, and they are at times so extensive as to produce
distortion in the appearance of the part of the body on which they are
found. The color of the skin over these swellings varies according to the
situation and thickness of the skin and the stage of the disease, and may
be white, red, bluish, or blackish.
As sooner or later these carbuncles and swellings may lead to an infection
of the entire body, and thus be fatal, surgical assistance should at once
be called if there is well-grounded suspicion that any swellings resembling
those described above have been caused by inoculation with anthrax virus.
Inasmuch as physicians differ as to medicinal treatment of such accidents
in man, it would be out of place to make any suggestions in this
connection.
Extensive data are available, however, on the effectiveness of anthrax
serum for the treatment of the disease in man. It is recommended that from
30 to 40 cubic centimeters of serum be injected in three or four different
places. Should no improvement follow in 24 hours additional injections of
20 to 30 cubic centimeters should be administered.
In most instances the results are favorable, and this treatment is
acknowledged to be superior to any other mode of treatment known for the
disease.
To show that the transmission of anthrax to man is not so very uncommon, we
take the following figures from the 1890 report of the German Government:
The attention of the authorities was brought to 111 cases, of which 11
terminated fatally. The largest number of inoculations were caused by the
slaughtering, opening, and skinning of animals affected with anthrax;
hence, the butchers suffered most extensively. Of the 111 thus affected, 36
belonged to this craft. Infected shaving brushes also are very dangerous.
In addition to anthrax of the skin (known as malignant pustule), human
beings are subject, though very rarely, to the disease of the lungs and the
digestive organs. In the former case the spores are inhaled by workmen in
establishments in which wool, hides, and rags are worked over, and it is
therefore known as woolsorter's disease. In the latter case the disease is
contracted by ea
|