Anthrax.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 2, 8 January 1903, Page 17

Anthrax.

The reported outbreak of anthrax at Woodlands a district about 12 miles north of Invercargill i s very properly regarded ns a most serious thing by the agricultural community. Not only does it concern those who have directly to do with stock of various kinds, for this Mrulent disease attacks animals of all kinds, and even communicates itself to human beings with fatal results. If it should now be found that anthrax has established itself in the extreme south as well as the north end of the Colony, the best that may be hoped is that its effects may be minimised, for even the most sanguine; may despair'of eradicating 'a disieaee^ whose germs aro so insidious and tenacious of life. It is this characteristic of latency that makes anthrax so dangerous. A farmer, let us suppose, has the misfortune to lose an animal by its means. Fully alive to the danger of infection, yet] not sufficiently informed of the means of preventing it, he buries the carcase in a secluded spot. But in a few years that spot is ploughed, and tho germs, liberated by the sunshine, enter upon their deadly work, when probably the source of their origin has

long been forgotten. It is possible to legislate against importations which may bring other diseases in their train. The importation of hides to New Zealand from Queensland and India was for many years forbidden, and at the present moment the importation of swine to Australia from New Zealand is illegal. But such precautions are temporary. The tick, passed away in Queensland, and the rinderpest in India. New Zealand may at any moment be declared free from swine fever. When that occurs, the restrictions will be removed, and without visible evil effects. But nothing except total and perpetual prohibition can guard against a disease that may lurk in bones for twenty years and then resume its deadly progress.