Anthrax
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Anthrax. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Important: Safety Warning
This page gives advice for salvaging or disguising food that has begun to spoil. Spoiled food can carry dangerous bacteria and toxins that no washing, soaking, or seasoning removes; it should be discarded.
In addition, this page directs the use of hazardous substances — such as benzine, gasoline, lye, or strong acids — for household tasks. These materials are highly flammable, corrosive, or poisonous, and the practices described have caused fires, burns, and poisonings.
In addition, this page directs applying corrosive sublimate — mercuric chloride — with a broom, and describes handling carcasses of animals dead of anthrax, while suggesting the disease is unlikely to pass to people. Mercuric chloride is acutely poisonous and readily absorbed, and anthrax is a serious human infection contracted from exactly this kind of contact.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
an infectious disease prevalent chiefly among cattle, sheep, and other grazing animals. The horse and deer are also attacked, as well as the goat, the hog, and the guinea pig . It is held that all warm blooded animals, whether flesh-eaters, or herb-eaters, are subject to the disease. Flesh-eating animals, however, are not so likely to take it, and it is held by some authorities that birds are immune. The disease is of an epizoic nature. It is also known as bloody murrain and wool sorter's disease . It is due to one of the rod-shaped bacteria. The germ is one of the largest. It has been known since 1849, and was one of the forms studied by Dr. Koch in his famous investigation of bacteria as the cause of contagious disease. It is very difficult to kill the germs either by drying or by boiling. Domestic animals have been known to acquire anthrax by grazing above the spots where animals dying of the disease had been buried three years before. There are various methods of infection. Dr. James Law holds that in "cattle the infection seems to be largely through the alimentary canal ; in horses and sheep by the skin or digestive tract; in men through wounds of the skin and the respiratory tract. Although these are the usual methods there are many exceptions." Tanners and wool sorters run a chance of contagion by handling the hides and wool of diseased animals. In the case of persons, the disease gives rise to malignant pustules and carbuncles, but it is not likely to prove fatal. In the case of farm animals, the progress of the disease is characterized by pustules, bloating, settling of blood, dropsy, and fever. The animals "go crazy" and tear around, finally going into convulsions, followed by stupor and death. Geographically anthrax is widespread. It causes great loss. The disease breaks out sporadically. It seldom sweeps a section of country. An animal that dies of the infection should be burned, if possible; otherwise Dr. Law recommends that it be thrown into a deep pit and covered with quicklime. Until precautions have been taken, no other animals should be allowed to enter a stable or pasture where a case of the disease has been known. All parts of the premises likely to be infected with the germs should be washed with corrosive sublimate or some other disinfectant. Water charged with the sublimate may be applied to woodwork with a broom. Pasteur has suggested that inoculation be practiced with bacteria culture grown at a high temperature. Under these conditions the bacteria produced lack vigor, and yet when injected into the system, they induce sufficient anti-bacterial action to render an animal immune, at least temporarily.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the name now generally used of a widely distributed and very destructive disease, most common among sheep and cattle. Besides its practical importance, it has special theoretical interest, because it was the first infectious disease proved to be due to the presence of microscopic vegetable organisms. Cattle and sheep are most commonly attacked by anthrax. In the most acute (apoplectiform) cases, the animal falls as if he had received a severe blow and goes into convulsions, and death follows in a few minutes or hours. Anthrax It occurs does not readily attack man. in those whose occupations bring them into contact with diseased animals or their hides, wool, etc.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's told readers in 1910 that in people anthrax "is not likely to prove fatal"; that holds only for the skin form, and only with treatment. Inhaled anthrax — the "wool sorter's disease" both accounts mention — kills most untreated patients, as the 2001 United States letter attacks showed: of eleven inhalation cases, five died. Antibiotics such as penicillin and ciprofloxacin now cure most cases caught early, and Pasteur's heat-weakened vaccine, described here as a suggestion, was superseded in 1937 by the Sterne spore vaccine still given to livestock worldwide. The old advice to spray premises with corrosive sublimate (mercuric chloride) should not be followed: it is a potent poison absorbed through the skin, and formaldehyde or hypochlorite disinfectants are used instead.
Written for this edition, 2026.