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Diseases and Disorders

Anthrax
Titles in the Diseases and Disorders series include:

Acne
Alzheimer’s Disease
Anorexia and Bulimia
Arthritis
Asthma
Attention Deficit Disorder
Autism
Breast Cancer
Cerebral Palsy
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Cystic Fibrosis
Diabetes
Down Syndrome
Epilepsy
Headaches
Hemophilia
Hepatitis
Learning Disabilities
Leukemia
Lyme Disease
Multiple Sclerosis
Obesity
Phobias
SARS
Schizophrenia
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Sleep Disorders
Smallpox
West Nile Virus
PDF Not Available Due to Copyright Terms
PDF Not Available Due to Copyright Terms
Table of Contents

Foreword 6
Introduction
A Deadly Disease 8
Chapter 1
Anthrax in Animals 11
Chapter 2
A Human Scourge 24
Chapter 3
Preventing and Treating Anthrax 36
Chapter 4
Anthrax Biological Weapons 51
Chapter 5
Detecting and Responding to Anthrax Bioweapons 68
Notes 87
Glossary 92
Organizations to Contact 94
For Further Reading 96
Works Consulted 98
Index 106
Picture Credits 111
About the Author 112
Foreword

“The Most
Difficult Puzzles
Ever Devised”
C HARLES BEST, ONE of the pioneers in the search for a cure for
diabetes, once explained what it is about medical research
that intrigued him so. “It’s not just the gratification of knowing
one is helping people,” he confided, “although that probably is a
more heroic and selfless motivation. Those feelings may enter in,
but truly, what I find best is the feeling of going toe to toe with
nature, of trying to solve the most difficult puzzles ever devised.
The answers are there somewhere, those keys that will solve the
puzzle and make the patient well. But how will those keys be
found?”
Since the dawn of civilization, nothing has so puzzled people—
and often frightened them, as well—as the onset of illness in a
body or mind that had seemed healthy before. A seizure, the in-
ability of a heart to pump, the sudden deterioration of muscle
tone in a small child—being unable to reverse such conditions or
even to understand why they occur was unspeakably frustrating
to healers. Even before there were names for such conditions, even
before they were understood at all, each was a reminder of
how complex the human body was, and how vulnerable.
While our grappling with understanding diseases has been
frustrating at times, it has also provided some of humankind’s
most heroic accomplishments. Alexander Fleming’s accidental
discovery in 1928 of a mold that could be turned into penicillin
6
 7
Foreword

has resulted in the saving of untold millions of lives. The isola-

tion of the enzyme insulin has reversed what was once a death
sentence for anyone with diabetes. There have been great strides
in combating conditions for which there is not yet a cure, too.
Medicines can help AIDS patients live longer, diagnostic tools
such as mammography and ultrasounds can help doctors find
tumors while they are treatable, and laser surgery techniques
have made the most intricate, minute operations routine.
This “toe-to-toe” competition with diseases and disorders is
even more remarkable when seen in a historical continuum. An as-
tonishing amount of progress has been made in a very short time.
Just two hundred years ago, the existence of germs as a cause of
some diseases was unknown. In fact, it was less than 150 years ago
that a British surgeon named Joseph Lister had difficulty persuad-
ing his fellow doctors that washing their hands before delivering a
baby might increase the chances of a healthy delivery (especially if
they had just attended to a diseased patient)!
Each book in Lucent’s Diseases and Disorders series explores
a disease or disorder and the knowledge that has been accumu-
lated (or discarded) by doctors through the years. Each book also
examines the tools used for pinpointing a diagnosis, as well as
the various means that are used to treat or cure a disease. Finally,
new ideas are presented—techniques or medicines that may be
on the horizon.
Frustration and disappointment are still part of medicine, for
not every disease or condition can be cured or prevented. But the
limitations of knowledge are being pushed outward constantly;
the “most difficult puzzles ever devised” are finding challengers
every day.
Introduction

A Deadly Disease
A NTHRAX IS A deadly, infectious disease caused by a bacterium,
Bacillus anthracis. Anthrax usually attacks animals, but can
also infect humans. It is one of about 150 known zoonotic diseases,
which can be passed directly from animals to humans under nat-
ural conditions.
The disease now commonly known as anthrax probably origi-
nated at least eleven thousand years ago, when human beings be-
gan to domesticate animals. Over the course of history, the affliction
was called by various names, including splenic fever, murrain,
black bane, malignant edema, plague, and woolsorters’ disease.
The name “anthrax” comes from anthrakis, the Greek word for coal,
because of the large black-crusted sores the disease often causes in
humans.
Historians believe one of the first written references to anthrax
is found in the Old Testament. In the book of Exodus, which de-
scribes events that occurred about 1445 B.C., God sent Moses to
Egypt to persuade the pharaoh to free the Israelites. When the
pharaoh refused, God inflicted a series of plagues on the Egyptians.
The fifth plague was a “grievous murrain” that killed cattle, horses,
asses, camels, oxen, and sheep. The sixth plague was “boils”(pus-
filled blisters) that afflicted men and beasts throughout Egypt. Schol-
ars believe both of these scourges were anthrax.
Anthrax is also mentioned in the early writings of the Egyptians,
Hindus, Mesopotamians, Greeks, and Romans. In The Iliad, writ-
ten about 800 B.C., the Greek poet Homer tells of a pestilence sent by
the god Apollo to attack mules and hounds as well as people, so that
“all day long the pyres of the dead were burning.” 1 And in The Geor-
gics, written around 30 B.C., the Roman writer Virgil describes a dis-
ease affecting farm animals that “chokes the very stalls with
8
 9
A Deadly Disease

carrion-heaps that rot in hideous corruption [decomposition], till

men learn with earth to cover them, in pits to hide.” Virgil also de-
scribes how the illness spreads to people: “For e’en the fells [hides]
are useless; nor the flesh [meat] with water may they purge, or tame
with fire. Nor shear the fleeces even, gnawed through and through
with foul disease . . . but, had one dared the loathly weeds [gar-
ments] to try, red blisters and an unclean sweat o’erran his noisome
[stinking] limbs, till . . . the fiery curse his tainted frame devoured.” 2
Over the next two thousand years various parts of the world
experienced human anthrax outbreaks. One of the worst occurred
in 1613. A devastating pandemic, called black bane, swept across
Europe, killing more than sixty thousand humans plus enormous
numbers of cattle, goats, horses, and sheep. A century and a half
later, in 1769, Jean Fournier classified the deadly livestock disease
as anthrax or charbon malin (malignant black pustule).
In the early 1800s anthrax once again devastated farms in Eu-
rope. In some areas, the disease infected up to 50 percent of the
sheep and 75 percent of the goats, as well as numerous people.
Later, in the mid-1800s, after industrialization led to the growth of
factories in western Europe, anthrax epidemics broke out among
those workers who processed hair, hides, and wool. Finally, in the

This medieval illustration depicts the plague on Egyptian cattle (bottom left)
described in the book of Exodus. Scientists today believe that the biblical
plague was actually anthrax.
 10
Anthrax

late 1800s advances in medicine helped to curtail the destruction

caused by this frightful disease.
Afterward, in the early 1900s, various nations began to investi-
gate the use of anthrax as a biological weapon. Biological weapons,
designed to destroy humans, animals, or plants, are composed of
microorganisms or toxins (poisons) produced by living organisms.
Anthrax seemed an ideal choice for a biological weapon because
Bacillus anthracis forms spores—dormant structures that are deadly,
simple to produce, easy to store, readily spread, difficult to destroy,
and hard to detect.
Small numbers of anthrax weapons were used by Germany dur-
ing World War I and by Japan during World War II. Many nations
continued to research anthrax weapons after World War II in an
attempt to produce more deadly biological arms. Finally, an in-
ternational treaty banning biological weapons went into effect in
1975, and anthrax largely receded from public awareness.
Then, in fall 2001, an unknown terrorist sent at least four letters
containing lethal anthrax spores to a number of public facilities,
including television and newspaper offices in New York City, me-
dia outlets in Florida, and Senate offices in Washington, D.C. The
spores in the anthrax letters infected twenty-two people. Five vic-
tims died, and thousands of people were treated with antibiotics
to protect them from the disease. The cleanup of contaminated
facilities took from months to years, and cost hundreds of millions
of dollars.
The anthrax attacks heightened public interest in this ancient
disease, which, though it has become rare in industrialized nations,
continues to afflict people and animals in developing countries and
presents a continuing threat as a potential bioweapon.
 Chapter 1

Anthrax in Animals
A LMOST ALL WARM-BLOODED animals are vulnerable to anthrax.
Most anthrax victims, however, are herbivores, especially graz-
ing animals such as cattle and sheep. Other domesticated creatures—
such as horses, mules, goats, camels, oxen, and llamas—are also very
susceptible to the disease. So are many wild animals. For example,
anthrax is common in antelope, deer, elk, reindeer, guinea pigs, mice,
and rabbits. Anthrax outbreaks caused by contaminated forage have
even been reported among elephants and hippopotamuses.
Cats, dogs, pigs, and birds rarely catch anthrax, and cold-blooded
creatures never do. Scientists believe that basic differences in
anatomy and physiology make some animals more susceptible to
certain microbes than others. Thus, many carnivores—including
dogs and cats—appear to have some natural resistance to anthrax,
as do some omnivores such as pigs.
For other creatures, high or low body temperatures contribute
to their immunity to anthrax. Bacillus anthracis bacteria grow best
at temperatures ranging from about 77˚F to 104˚F. Thus, most birds
are immune to anthrax because their body temperatures average
about 107.6˚F. This is several degrees higher than the average body
temperatures of cows, goats, and other herbivores (102.2˚F) that
usually contract anthrax. Conversely, the low body temperature
of cold-blooded animals, which varies with the environment, helps
protect them from anthrax.
In the past anthrax was common all over the world. Now, it oc-
curs mainly in developing regions that lack the means to control
the disease, such as sections of the Middle East, Africa, Australia,
southern and eastern Europe, South America, Central America, the
Caribbean, and Asia. In the mid-1900s, for instance, a devastating
anthrax epidemic killed about 1 million sheep in Iran.
11
 12
Anthrax

Anthrax spores (left) lie dormant until they come in contact with a warm-blooded
animal. They then become active as rod-shaped bacteria (right).

In 2000 at least forty-eight countries suffered from outbreaks

of animal anthrax. Of those, forty-three were developing nations,
including Nicaragua, Romania, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan,
Afghanistan, India, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe. In January 2000 a ter-
rible anthrax epidemic was reported on an ostrich farm in West
Java, Indonesia. Unlike most birds, the average body temperature
of ostriches is about 102.6˚F, making them susceptible to anthrax.
To eliminate the disease from the ostrich farm, over twenty-six hun-
dred ostriches were killed with injections of strychnine (a type of
poison). The carcasses were then placed in a deep pit and burned.
A number of industrialized countries, such as Canada, France,
Germany, and the United States, also experienced outbreaks of an-
imal anthrax in 2000. Anthrax is not common in the United States,
but outbreaks periodically occur, especially in parts of the South-
west, Great Plains, Midwest, and Southeast. In summer 2000, for
example, about sixteen hundred animals—including horses, cat-
tle, elk, water buffalo, a llama, and twelve hundred wild, white-
tailed deer—died from anthrax in Texas. In the fall of that same
year, more than fifty cows died of anthrax at a ranch in Washoe
County, Nevada. According to David Thain, Nevada Department
 13
Anthrax in Animals

of Agriculture state veterinarian, the Nevada outbreak was “be-

lieved to be due to . . . ditch cleaning that released soil borne [an-
thrax] spores onto pasture grasses.” 3
In 2001 approximately 100 animals in northwestern Minnesota
died from anthrax, as did 21 cattle on a ranch in Santa Clara County,
California. In addition, 160 animals in North Dakota perished from
the disease. The outbreak in North Dakota was partly triggered by
the weather, according to Larry Schuler, the North Dakota state
veterinarian. “The [anthrax] spores are always in the ground,” ob-
serves Schuler. “What appears to bring [anthrax] on is when we
have a very wet spring with some flooding followed by a lot of hot
dry weather. The spores float up to the surface in the flooding, then
land on plants that the cattle eat later.” 4 A similar weather pattern,
hurricane rains followed by hot weather, caused anthrax to break
out near Del Rio, Texas, in August 2003.
 14
Anthrax

Life Cycle of Bacillus anthracis

Bacillus anthracis, the organism that causes anthrax, is a large, rod-
shaped bacterium. Under normal conditions Bacillus anthracis or-
ganisms are surrounded by a gel-like covering called a capsule.
This coating protects Bacillus anthracis organisms from the immune
system of a host animal.
Anthrax organisms range in size from about 1 to 1.5 microns in
width and about 3 to 10 microns in length (1 micron = 1 millionth
of a meter). When exposed to adverse conditions, such as the death
and decomposition of a host animal, anthrax bacteria form spores.
 15
Anthrax in Animals

Bacillus anthracis organisms must be exposed to oxygen to make

spores, so spore production does not occur inside intact corpses.
Anthrax spores are hardy, thick-walled, oval bodies with an av-
erage diameter of about 1 to 3 microns. The spores are highly resis-
tant to drought, heat, cold, disinfectants, and other unfavorable
surroundings. The spores can lie dormant in natural environments
such as vegetation, soil, or water for hundreds of years. For exam-
ple, the soil of the Ohio Valley of the eastern United States—which
was contaminated by the livestock of homesteaders in the early
1800s—still contains anthrax spores. The same is true of old cattle
trails that ran from Texas to Canada, and routes used by pioneers in
the Old West. According to Susan Jones, a veterinarian and medical
historian at the University of Colorado: “The practice [in the Old
West] was to let the animals die and leave them behind. The animal
becomes an incubator, and the bacteria survive in spore form for
decades and decades in soil.” 5 Wool, hides, bones, and other parts
of deceased anthrax victims can also harbor the spores for years.
Lingering spores make it almost impossible to eliminate anthrax
from areas where animals have been infected throughout history.
Once anthrax spores enter the body of a living animal, they ger-
minate, or transform back into rod-shaped bacteria. The bacteria
begin to multiply near the site of invasion, then spread through
the creature’s body and continue to reproduce. A huge population
of germs develops and produces toxins, resulting in the host ani-
mal’s death. As the creature’s carcass breaks down, the anthrax
bacteria form spores, which disperse into the surrounding envi-
ronment. When the spores are consumed by an animal, the cycle
begins again.

Methods of Infection
Though anthrax can strike at any time, grazing animals usually
get sick in the dry summer months, when available forage de-
creases. The animals will eat grass to the ground and may pull
plants up and eat the roots as well, taking in anthrax spores in
or on the soil. The coarse vegetation can cause small cuts and
abrasions in the mouth, throat, and intestine of a grazing ani-
mal, allowing the spores to enter the body. Anthrax can also be
 16
Anthrax

contracted by livestock through wounds caused by dehorning or

castration.
Meat-eating creatures, like predators and scavengers, may con-
tract anthrax from consuming sick prey or infected carcasses. An-
thrax spores can also be transmitted by insect bites, polluted water,
commercial feed made from diseased animal carcasses, and dust
blown off anthrax-contaminated soil.
Once infection occurs, the incubation period, or length of time
until symptoms appear, ranges from one to fourteen days but is
usually from three to seven days. The course of the illness varies
with the form of the disease and the animal infected.

Forms of Animal Anthrax

Four forms of anthrax are seen in animals—peracute anthrax, acute
anthrax, subacute anthrax, and chronic anthrax. They differ chiefly
in the span of time between the appearance of symptoms and death.
Peracute anthrax generally lasts from one to two hours, though
some animals go from apparent health to death in moments. Acute
anthrax persists for one to two days. Subacute anthrax lasts for
three to five days. Chronic anthrax persists longer than five days.
Some animals recover from the chronic form of the disease.
Death from anthrax is generally due to septicemia, or blood poi-
soning, caused by high levels of Bacillus anthracis organisms and
the toxins they secrete. At the time of death, most susceptible
species—if left untreated—contain about 10 million to 100 million
Bacillus anthracis organisms per milliliter (.03 fluid ounces) of blood.
Large amounts of anthrax toxins result in kidney failure, tissue
damage, massive edema (swelling due to accumulation of fluids
in tissue spaces), and shock (decline of body functions due to re-
duced blood circulation). Animals that survive anthrax become im-
mune to the disease and cannot be reinfected.

Peracute and Acute Anthrax

Ruminants, or grazing animals that chew their cud—such as cat-
tle, sheep, goats, oxen, and llamas—usually exhibit peracute or
acute anthrax, the most severe forms of the disease. Horses, which
also forage in pastures, generally demonstrate peracute or acute
anthrax as well.
Cattle, as well as sheep, goats, llamas, and other grazing animals, are susceptible
to peracute and acute anthrax, the most severe forms of the disease.

Animals with peracute anthrax may die suddenly, without ex-

hibiting any signs of illness. “Even if you’re watching your ani-
mals like a hawk, all you might notice is a little lethargy,” observes
Konrad Eugster, executive director of the Texas Veterinary Med-
ical Diagnostic Laboratory in College Station. “For all practical
purposes, it’s a sudden, unexplained death.” 6
Usually, though, victims of peracute anthrax exhibit a variety
of symptoms such as fever, muscle tremors, difficulty breathing,
and convulsions for one to two hours before death. Creatures with
acute anthrax demonstrate similar symptoms for one to two days.
Acute anthrax sufferers may also display chills, loss of appetite,
staggering, diarrhea, convulsions, and aggressiveness (a tendency
to charge) followed by listlessness. Affected animals also develop
swellings, called tumors, on the body. Pregnant animals may lose
the fetus, milk production may be reduced, and milk may be dis-
colored—blood-stained or yellow. Infected horses often experience
severe colic (intestinal distress).
 18
Anthrax

After death from peracute or acute anthrax, there may be bloody

discharges from the victim’s nose, mouth, and anus; rapid bloat-
ing and decomposition of the carcass; dark, unclotted blood in the
body; reduced rigor mortis (stiffening of the corpse); and an en-
larged, pulpy spleen the color of blackberries. Tumors, if cut open,
appear black and are filled with a bloody mass of decayed tissue.

Subacute and Chronic Anthrax

Pigs, cats, and dogs generally demonstrate subacute or chronic forms
of anthrax. On rare occasions, cattle and horses also exhibit these va-
rieties of the disease. Symptoms of subacute and chronic anthrax
might include blood-stained, foamy discharges from the mouth, en-
teritis (inflammation of the intestine), labored breathing, difficulty
swallowing, and swelling of the tongue and throat. In some cases
the victim’s shoulders, sides, and genital region swell also.
If the swollen throat inhibits breathing, a victim of subacute an-
thrax can die of suffocation. As in other types of anthrax, subacute
and chronic forms of the disease often result in death from sep-
ticemia. Sometimes, though, pigs, cats, and dogs—which are some-
what resistant to anthrax—recover from the chronic form of the
disease.

Cutaneous Infection
On occasion, animals become infected with anthrax cutaneously
(through the skin) because of insect bites or injury. In these cases
the disease remains restricted to the site of injury in the early stages.
The affected area initially becomes hot and swollen, then grows
cool and numb.
Without treatment the illness may become systemic seven to ten
days after infection, resulting in septicemia. Death then follows
within twenty-four to thirty-six hours.

Diagnosing Anthrax in Animals

If an animal perishes after exhibiting some of the symptoms de-
scribed above, or dies very suddenly, anthrax is usually suspected.
In such a case, veterinarians are warned not to perform a necropsy,
or animal autopsy, to learn the cause of death. Bacillus anthracis
 19
Anthrax in Animals

quickly sporulates (forms spores) when exposed to air. Thus, open-

ing the body would induce sporulation and allow anthrax to
spread, endangering other animals and humans.
Instead of examining the interior of a suspected anthrax corpse,
veterinarians are advised to withdraw blood from an outer vein,
such as the jugular vein in the neck. Laboratory workers then pre-
pare a slide of the blood and dye it with a bacterial Gram’s stain.
To perform a Gram’s stain, a laboratory technician immerses the
slide in the following series of solutions for about ten seconds each:
a purple dye called gentian violet, iodine, alcohol, and a pink dye
called safranin. When the stained slide is examined with a micro-
scope, the presence of Bacillus anthracis organisms—which appear
as violet blue rods containing colorless, oval spores—would
demonstrate infection with anthrax.

Veterinarians must take extra care to prevent the spread of anthrax when
examining the bodies of animals suspected of dying from the disease.
 20
Anthrax

How Anthrax Spreads

Anthrax spores, which are easily dispersed, can spread the disease
over an extensive area. Animal disseminators of anthrax spores in-
clude scavengers such as ravens, vultures, and hyenas that eat the
carcasses of anthrax victims. Afterward, the scavengers roam
around their ranges dispersing the spores in their feces. Anthrax
victims may also contaminate the ground when they die, or pol-
lute water holes if they perish there. Anthrax spores can also be
spread by mosquitoes, biting flies, and other blood-sucking insects,
which transmit bacteria from one animal to another.
Floodwaters can sweep anthrax spores great distances from their
point of origin. Similarly, spores can be dispersed by effluents from
factories that use animal parts, such as tanneries, rendering works,
carpet mills, and brush factories. The waste products discharged
into streams can be carried many miles. The most widespread dis-

The world’s rural poor, like these Afghan shepherds, rely on livestock for
their livelihood. Outbreaks of the disease decimate livestock populations,
resulting in economic ruin.
 21
Anthrax in Animals

persion of anthrax spores may be via commercial products made

with animal parts, which are exported around the globe. These in-
clude feedstuffs, protein concentrates, raw bone meal, blood meal,
and animal hides.

Economic Impact of Animal Anthrax

Outbreaks of animal anthrax can have severe economic conse-
quences. This is especially true in developing nations, which con-
tain large numbers of poor shepherds and farmers. At the end of
the twentieth century, for example, livestock helped support at least
70 percent of the world’s rural poor, estimated to be between 800
million and 1 billion people. Thus, anthrax—which can wipe out
livestock very quickly—is ranked as one of the twenty conditions
that have the greatest impact on poor people around the world.
Anthrax continues to be a major problem in disadvantaged com-
munities because many indigent people lack the means to control
the disease. In 2001, for example, a joint mission of the World Food
Program and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organiza-
tion (FAO) found that shepherds in Afghanistan could not afford
anthrax vaccines that cost less than one U.S. penny per dose. More-
over, poor farmers have small herds, so each animal is used for sev-
eral purposes, such as transportation, plowing, pulling, carrying
loads, and producing fertilizer (manure). In addition, livestock sup-
ply clothing (hides) and food. In fact, more than 75 percent of the
food in shepherding communities comes from milk and livestock
products. Thus, to a poor shepherd or farmer, the death of an ani-
mal from anthrax is a huge loss.
In some communities, moreover, livestock has enormous cul-
tural and religious significance. The Dinka of Sudan, for instance,
use cattle for marriage dowries and religious sacrifices, as well
as other customs. The Dinka drink cow’s milk and make it into
butter and ghee, an oil for cooking. They use cattle urine for
washing, dying their hair, and tanning animal hides. The Dinka
employ cow dung as fuel for fires and use the resulting ashes to
keep their cattle clean and to protect the animals from ticks. The
Dinka also use the ashes to decorate themselves (body art) and
to make a paste for cleaning their teeth. If cattle die from natural
For the Dinka of the Sudan, cattle carry tremendous religious, cultural, and
economic importance. As a result, the socioeconomic impact of an anthrax
outbreak is devastating.

causes or are sacrificed, the animals are butchered. The Dinka

then eat the meat and tan the skins. The hides are used to make
mats, drums, belts, ropes, and halters. The Dinka also use the
horns and bones of the cattle to make tools and decorative items.
To the Dinka, in fact, cattle are the highest form of wealth. Ac-
cording to a 2002 FAO report about the socioeconomic impact of
livestock diseases such as anthrax: “[In Dinka society] cattle play an
 23
Anthrax in Animals

essential role . . . providing not only milk and dowry but perform-
ing important social functions and determining a man’s position
and influence in the community. . . . Cattle provide the means by
which kinship ties are made and maintained, a process for ensur-
ing the long term viability of the household and a means of receiv-
ing support . . . in the event of disaster.” 7 Thus, like other livestock
keepers, the Dinka are greatly concerned about controlling anthrax.
The Dinka have several names for this disease, including “jong nyal,”
which means a mysterious illness that comes from the sky or from
God; “jong de tak,” which means spleen disease, and “anguin,”
which means sudden death.
A February 2003 report from the Climate Information Project of
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
which monitors the impact of climate around the world, noted that
anthrax had broken out in parts of Sudan during the dry season.
According to the NOAA report, there were concerns that the dis-
ease would spread quickly, adversely affecting regions that were
already experiencing food shortages. To deal with such outbreaks,
the Dinka use not only conventional control measures such as vac-
cine and medicine, but also the services of a “spearmaster,” who
uses magic to try and ward off the disease.
A study, carried out by the International Livestock Research In-
stitute under the sponsorship of the Department for International
Development and published in 2003, notes that “finding [solu-
tions] to the hazards that livestock are exposed to in the devel-
oping nations of the world is an excellent approach to rapidly
emancipating the resource poor from starvation and poverty.” 8
Hence, the Animal Production and Health Division of the FAO is
fostering and encouraging programs to reduce the incidence of
anthrax and other animal diseases around the world. The South
African government, for example, disperses about one hundred
thousand brochures annually—illustrated with drawings of sad
cows—directing farmers to vaccinate their cattle. The goal of these
international programs is to reduce poverty and bolster the liveli-
hoods of disadvantaged shepherds and farmers. In addition, con-
trolling zoonotic diseases like anthrax will improve the health of
humans.
Chapter 2

A Human Scourge
A NIMALS ARE THE usual victims of anthrax, but the disease has
also plagued humans since ancient times. Human anthrax is
not common, but medical experts estimate that between twenty
and one hundred thousand cases occur globally each year. People
of any age may be infected, usually by handling contaminated
hides or eating infected meat. Most human victims are those peo-
ple who work with animals or animal products, such as farmers,
ranchers, veterinarians, wildlife workers, butchers, and wool-
workers. However, skin, wool, furs, ivory tusks, and other animal
parts can harbor anthrax spores for years, spreading the disease
to the general public. Unlike contagious diseases, anthrax is not
spread from person to person.
Human anthrax is most common in regions where animal an-
thrax is widespread, such as parts of Africa, Asia, southern and
eastern Europe, South America, Central America, the Caribbean,
Australia, and the Middle East. In these areas, afflicted animals
sometimes transmit the disease to humans. In Tajikistan in Cen-
tral Asia, for example, 338 cases of human anthrax were reported
in 2000. Kenya, Zambia, India, Pakistan, and Indonesia also re-
ported significant outbreaks of human anthrax in 2000 and 2001.
Human anthrax is rare in industrialized countries like the United
States. During the early 1900s about two hundred people per year
contracted anthrax in the United States. By the mid-1900s, how-
ever, industrial upgrades, improved animal rearing practices, strict
controls on imported animal products, and sterilization of animal
skins, hides, and hair greatly reduced the incidence of human an-
thrax. Thus, few cases were reported in the United States by the
last quarter of the twentieth century. An additional reason for the
reduced incidence of human anthrax in the nation may be that
24
 25
A Human Scourge

most farmers and ranchers have learned to recognize anthrax in

animals and avoid handling diseased creatures. “It’s usually fairly
obvious when you know what to look for,” observes Martin Hugh-
Jones, a veterinarian at Louisiana State University who monitors
anthrax. “[Animal victims of anthrax] bloat up fairly quickly. . . .
You get blood coming out of the nose and anus in some cases and
they don’t have rigor mortis.” 9
In the early stages human anthrax can resemble the bite of a
brown recluse spider, a severe reaction to a smallpox vaccination,
or other diseases like influenza, tularemia (a bacterial infection),
or herpes simplex (a viral infection). A definite diagnosis of anthrax

Most human victims of anthrax are people who work with animals, like these
cattle ranchers. Anthrax does not spread from person to person.
 26
Anthrax

is made by isolating Bacillus anthracis organisms from a victim or

by finding large quantities of “anthrax antibodies” (substances that
fight anthrax germs) in a person’s blood. If a victim contracts a
deadly form of anthrax, an early diagnosis is important for rapid
treatment and recovery.

The Disease in Humans

Three forms of anthrax are seen in human beings—cutaneous an-
thrax, inhalation anthrax, and intestinal anthrax. Each is contracted
in a different way. Cutaneous anthrax is caught when anthrax
spores enter through cuts or abrasions in a person’s skin. Inhala-
tion anthrax is contracted by breathing in anthrax spores. And in-
testinal anthrax results when humans ingest anthrax spores.

Cutaneous Anthrax
Cutaneous anthrax is the most common, and least deadly, form
of the disease in people. Even without treatment, the majority of
victims recover. At one time, medical experts believed that more
than 95 percent of human anthrax cases were cutaneous. However,
recent studies have shown that other types of human anthrax are
more common than was previously believed.
The incubation period for cutaneous anthrax—from the time
spores enter the skin until symptoms appear—ranges from twelve
hours to twelve days, but is usually two to five days. During this
time, the anthrax spores germinate into bacterial cells, which mul-
tiply and produce toxins. The toxins cause small red lesions, which
may be either macules (flat spots) or papules (elevated spots), to
erupt at the sites of infection. The red spots, which may be mis-
taken for pimples or insect bites, generally appear on exposed ar-
eas of the body, such as the head, neck, face, arms, and hands.
Over the next seven to ten days the red lesions grow into ulcers,
called eschars, that vary from about one-half inch to two inches
in diameter. The centers of the eschars become hard, black crusts,
which give the disease its name. Historically, the eschars were called
malignant pustules, carbuncles, or charbons. The eschars them-
selves usually do not hurt. However, the areas around the eschars
swell as they become engorged with bacteria-filled fluids, and this
This nasty lesion was caused by cutaneous anthrax, the least deadly form of
the disease. The lesions heal after one or two weeks.

may be painful. In addition, lymph nodes near the eschars, which

enlarge as they help fight the infection, may also cause great dis-
comfort.
Even without medication, 80 percent of cutaneous anthrax vic-
tims recover as their immune systems fight off the disease. In sur-
vivors, the eschars remain limited to the sites of infection and dry
up and heal after one to two weeks. Permanent scars, however,
may remain at the locations of the original lesions. Proper early
treatment of cutaneous anthrax does not stop the formation of
eschars but usually prevents death.
About 20 percent of untreated cases of cutaneous anthrax be-
come systemic (spread throughout the body). In these cases the
victims exhibit high fever, weakness, and widespread edema. Sys-
temic cutaneous anthrax usually results in death from septicemia,
caused by large quantities of Bacillus anthracis organisms and their
toxins circulating in the blood. With appropriate early antibiotic
treatment, septicemia is rare.
A possible complication of all forms of human anthrax is an-
thrax meningitis. This occurs when anthrax bacteria infect the
 28
Anthrax

membranes around the brain and spinal cord, which can result in
high fever, stiff neck, severe headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting,
agitation, seizures, delirium, and coma. Anthrax meningitis almost
always results in death.

Cutaneous Anthrax Outbreaks

Early in the twentieth century, several outbreaks of human cuta-
neous anthrax were attributed to contaminated shaving brushes.
During World War I (1914–1918) large numbers of British and U.S.
soldiers—as well as many British civilians—contracted cutaneous
 29
A Human Scourge

anthrax from horsehair shaving brushes purchased from Japan. The

horsehair in the brushes was traced to China and Siberia. During
the epidemic 149 U.S. troops stationed in Great Britain contracted
anthrax, and 22 died from the disease. In the 1920s and 1930s in-
fected shaving brushes from Japan were also responsible for cuta-
neous anthrax outbreaks in New York City and other parts of the
United States.
Later in the century human cutaneous anthrax declined in the
United States, with fewer than 230 cases reported from the 1940s
through the 1990s. A number of these illnesses occurred in the
1950s, when large numbers of wool products were manufactured
in the nation. During that time cutaneous anthrax outbreaks af-
fected workers in wool and hair industries in several states, in-
cluding Colorado, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Louisiana, and
New Hampshire. In 1955, for example, five workers at a mill in
Monroe, North Carolina, contracted cutaneous anthrax from im-
ported goat hair. The origin of the disease was eventually traced
to a shipment of wool from Iran and Iraq. Later, in the 1970s, other
cases of cutaneous anthrax occurred when infected goatskin drum-
heads were imported as souvenirs. In a more unusual case, a girl
in Louisiana developed cutaneous anthrax after carving figures
from contaminated horse bones.
Though human cutaneous anthrax in the United States is now
rare, the disease is still occasionally seen in people that work with
animals. In 2000, for example, a man in North Dakota developed
cutaneous anthrax after disposing of five infected cow carcasses.
And, in summer 2001, a ranch hand in west Texas contracted cuta-
neous anthrax after skinning a buffalo that had died of the disease.
Naturally occurring human anthrax is now uncommon in in-
dustrialized nations, but the disease remains a problem in devel-
oping regions. In October 2000, for instance, thirty-three people in
Kazakhstan contracted cutaneous anthrax after slaughtering in-
fected animals. Similarly, in October and November 2001, forty
people in Zimbabwe developed cutaneous anthrax—also after han-
dling meat from infected cattle. In addition, a group of San bush-
men in South Africa became infected with cutaneous anthrax after
butchering and cooking a dead cow found in a field.
 30
Anthrax

Medical experts note that many of these human victims were

among the world’s poorest people, who either do not know about
the hazards of anthrax or are too hungry to care. In fact, some im-
poverished people knowingly consume anthrax-contaminated ani-
mals rather than starve. This happened in a village of “untouchables”
(the lowest caste of people) in India. Huseyin Caksen, a physician
at Turkey’s Yuzuncuyil University, observes: “Human anthrax will
be difficult to overcome. As long as there is poverty, we will have this
disease.” 10
Turkey periodically experiences human anthrax epidemics. This
is especially true in rural parts of the country, where people keep
livestock. In 2000, for example, 396 people in Turkey developed
cutaneous or other forms of anthrax. In one instance, two children
contracted cutaneous anthrax after their foreheads were smeared
with infected cow’s blood as part of a traditional ritual. According
to researchers, blood-smearing ceremonies such as this may be a
significant factor in infecting children with cutaneous anthrax in
some countries.

Inhalation Anthrax
In the past, human inhalation anthrax was sometimes called “wool-
sorters’ disease” because of its prevalence among woolworkers
in industrial mills. This form of human anthrax is uncommon, but
very deadly. Without treatment, almost all victims die. With im-
mediate, intense medical treatment, however, some patients sur-
vive.
In the United States only eighteen cases of inhalation anthrax
were reported between 1900 and 1978, mostly among people who
worked with goat wool or goat skins. After 1978 there were no
known cases of inhalation anthrax in the United States until the
anthrax mail attacks of 2001.
Inhalation anthrax is contracted when anthrax spores enter a
person’s lungs. The victim’s immune system attacks the spores,
but some spores survive and make their way to lymph nodes near
the respiratory system. The spores germinate in the lymph nodes,
where anthrax bacteria multiply and produce toxins. Symptoms
appear soon afterwards.
In the early twentieth century, woolworkers like these were susceptible to
inhalation anthrax, a form of the disease contracted when anthrax spores
enter the lungs.

The incubation period for inhalation anthrax ranges from one to

sixty days, but is usually between one and ten days. The first stage
of the disease resembles influenza, with symptoms such as low-
grade fever, chills, muscle aches, fatigue, sore throat, coughing, and
headache. This phase, which can last from a few hours to a few
days, is sometimes followed by a very brief period of improvement.
As the bacterial population increases and the level of toxins rises,
inhalation anthrax enters the second, or fulminant (severe), stage.
This phase is characterized by tissue destruction, bleeding, fluid
buildup in the mediastinum (the region around the heart and be-
tween the lungs), and increased inflammation of the lymph nodes.
The anthrax bacteria may also spread to the liver, spleen, kidneys,
and other organs, which become dark in color and bleed.
During the fulminant stage the victim becomes extremely ill and
often exhibits symptoms such as high fever, extreme shortness of
breath, profuse sweating, bluish skin color, abnormally low blood
pressure, vomiting, severe chest pain, abdominal pain, and shock.
Up to 50 percent of people suffering from inhalation anthrax also
develop anthrax meningitis. Without very early treatment, about
99 percent of inhalation anthrax victims die from septicemia two
to four days after the first symptoms appear. Once the fulminant
 32
Anthrax

stage begins, even high doses of medicine cannot control the dis-
ease, and death follows within twenty-four hours.
A serious outbreak of inhalation anthrax occurred in 1957 at a
mill in Manchester, New Hampshire. Nine laborers became ill, and
four died of inhalation anthrax. Nearly a decade later, a worker at
a machine shop across from the mill also died of inhalation anthrax.
Prior to 2001 the last fatal case of inhalation anthrax in the United
States occurred in 1976, when a California weaver contracted the
disease after working with goat hair imported from Pakistan.

Intestinal Anthrax
Human intestinal anthrax—acquired by eating meat, fruits, or veg-
etables contaminated with anthrax spores—has generally been con-
sidered a rare form of the disease. A report published in 2002,
however, notes that intestinal anthrax is greatly underreported, es-
pecially in rural parts of developing countries. There are two reasons
for this: Most doctors are not familiar with intestinal anthrax, and
poor regions have too few medical clinics to adequately diagnose
and report the disease.
According to Thira Sirisanthana, a professor of medicine and
director of the Research Institute for Health Sciences at Chiang Mai
University in Thailand, and Arthur E. Brown, chief of the Depart-
ment of Retrovirology at the Armed Forces Research Institute for
Medical Sciences in Thailand, human intestinal anthrax may be
more common than human cutaneous anthrax in some outbreaks.
The physicians observe that “in some community-based studies,
cases of gastrointestinal anthrax outnumbered those of cutaneous
anthrax,” and “the apparently overwhelming predominance of the
cutaneous form of anthrax is rather a reflection of the difficulty of
diagnosis of the [intestinal] form.” The scientists also assert that
“mild cases of [intestinal anthrax] attract little attention, and peo-
ple with severe infections, leading to death within two to three
days, may never reach a medical facility.” 11
In any case, intestinal anthrax is much more serious than cuta-
neous anthrax. If left untreated, intestinal anthrax results in death
in 25 to 65 percent of victims. In recent years known deaths from
intestinal anthrax have occurred in Gambia, Uganda, Turkey, Thai-
 33
A Human Scourge

land, India, and Iran. No cases of intestinal anthrax have ever been
confirmed in the United States.
Eating herbivorous animals is the leading cause of intestinal an-
thrax in humans. The animals eat forage contaminated with an-
thrax spores, get sick, and die. The disease is then passed on to
humans who eat their flesh. This is especially likely to occur if the
meat is undercooked.
There are two types of human intestinal anthrax—oropharyn-
geal (mouth and throat) and abdominal—acquired when spores
enter the lining of the digestive system. Oropharyngeal anthrax
results when spores enter the upper digestive tract, and abdomi-
nal anthrax is contracted when spores enter the lower digestive
tract. Once inside the digestive tract the spores germinate and mul-
tiply. The anthrax bacteria are then carried to nearby lymph nodes

Cases of intestinal anthrax, a form of the disease contracted through

consumption of infected animals, have been documented in developing
countries throughout the world.
 34
Anthrax

where they continue to proliferate and produce toxins. The incu-

bation period for intestinal anthrax ranges from one to seven days,
but is usually two to five days.

Oropharyngeal Anthrax
Early symptoms of oropharyngeal anthrax may include high fever;
ulcers on the mouth, tongue, tonsils, and esophagus; and inflam-
mation of nearby lymph nodes. Swelling of the mouth and esoph-
agus may cause trouble swallowing and difficulty breathing. If
breathing problems become severe, the victim may die of suffoca-
tion. Like other forms of anthrax, untreated oropharyngeal anthrax
can become systemic, leading to death from massive septicemia.
Outbreaks of oropharyngeal anthrax have been reported in Africa
and Asia. In 1982, for example, in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand,
the handling and ingestion of infected water buffalo meat resulted
in fifty-two cases of human cutaneous anthrax and twenty-four
cases of human oropharyngeal anthrax. Three of the oropharyngeal
anthrax victims died. A less severe outbreak of oropharyngeal an-
thrax occurred in Turkey in 1986. Six people contracted the disease
and three died. Seven years later, in 1993, Turkey once again expe-
rienced an outbreak of this disease.

Abdominal Anthrax
Abdominal anthrax is diagnosed more frequently than oropha-
ryngeal anthrax. Early signs of abdominal anthrax include in-
testinal lesions, inflammation of abdominal lymph nodes, fever,
loss of appetite, abdominal pain, vomiting, and fatigue. As the
disease progresses victims experience more severe symptoms,
such as fluid buildup in the abdomen, bloody diarrhea, and
bloody vomit. In very severe cases the victim may die of intesti-
nal perforation (holes in the intestine). If intestinal anthrax becomes
systemic, it can resemble the final stages of inhalation anthrax and
lead to death from septicemia. Death rates from intestinal anthrax
are high because the disease is difficult to diagnose in the early
stages. Therefore, victims may not receive timely treatment.
The worst recorded epidemic of human intestinal anthrax oc-
curred in Saint Domingue (Haiti) in the eighteenth century and
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
 “I will be true, good wife to you forever,” she said, and then
swiftly corrected herself, as though frightened by her own words.
“No, no, I make ridigulous mistage—not forever—jus’ for liddle bit
while—as you desire, augustness!”

“But I don’t desire,” he laughed nervously. “I don’t want to

get married. I won’t be over a few months at most in Japan.”

“Oh, jus’ for liddle bit while marry with me,” she breathed,
entreatingly—“Pl-ease!”

It hurt him strangely to have her plead so. She looked delicate and
refined and gentle. He put her hands quickly from him. She held them
out and put them back again into his. Her eyes clouded, and he
thought she was going to cry.

He was seized with a desire to keep her from weeping, if he could,

this little creature, who seemed made for anything but tears. He spoke
from this impulse, without giving so much as a second’s thought to
the seriousness of his words.

“Don’t cry. I’ll marry you, of course, if you want me to.”

He felt the hands in his own tremble.

“Thangs, excellency,” she said, in a voice that was barely above a

whisper, but it was a voice which had in it no note of joy.

There was pleasure, however, in the eyes of the nakoda. He had

done a good piece of business, a most excellent piece of business, for
the American gentleman was reputed to be able to buy hundreds and
hundreds of rice-fields if he so cared to do. The nakoda came forward
with a benignant smile to arrange the terms.

“She will cost only three hundred yen per down and fifteen yen
each end per week. Soach a cheap price for a wife!”

It was the grinning face of this matrimonial middleman that brought

Bigelow back to his senses. He had said he would marry this little
creature, whose limp hands he was holding. He dropped them as
though they were the hands of one dead, and drew back.

“I won’t do it!” he almost shouted. “Never!” Then he thought

what must be the feelings of the little girl whose yoke of marriage he
was refusing, and softened. “I wasn’t thinking when I said I would.
I don’t want to marry a Japanese girl. I don’t want to marry any
girl. I wouldn’t be doing right, and it wouldn’t be fair to you.” He
paused, and then added, lamely, “I think I’d like you awfully,
though, if I only knew you.”

“But—” spoke up the nakoda, anxiously, who found his dream of

a large fee fading into thin air.

Jack turned upon him quickly and gave him a sharp look, whereat
he retired hurriedly.

A look of relief had come over the girl’s face when Jack had cried
out that he would not marry her, and at this he wondered much. This
relief in her face, however, was succeeded almost instantly by
disappointment. But she spoke no further word. She gave him a single
hurried glance from beneath fluttering eyelashes, courtesied until her
head was almost on a level with his knees, and left him.
 III
AN APPOINTMENT
Jack Bigelow regarded the attempt of the nakoda and little Miss ——
(he had not even thought to ask her name) as an incident closed by
the retirement of the one aspiring to wifehood from his sight. But in
passing from his house she had not passed from his mind. This she
occupied in spite of him, though it must be said that Jack made no
effort to eject her.

He had been approached by many nakodas, who had the disposal of

some most excellent wives, so they had told him, but never before had
he consented to see one of their offerings; so the sensation of being
asked in marriage by a girl whom he had only seen once before, and
that under circumstances which prevented his seeing her clearly, was
altogether new. That he, John Hampden Bigelow, A.B.—he was very
proud of that A.B., it had not cost him any particular labor—should be
so sought out was not at all displeasing to his vanity, a quality that he
prided himself on not possessing; this, notwithstanding the fact that he
knew he had been approached because he had money.

He chuckled at the event several times during the day. He would

keep this incident in mind, with all its detail, and make use of it now
and then after he had returned home, when he was called upon to talk
of his experiences in other lands. Of course, he would exaggerate a bit
here and tone down a bit there, and would make the girl much prettier.
No, the girl was pretty enough. This part of the incident could not be
improved upon.

Jack mused about the morning’s episode during the entire day,
and twice exploded into such laughter at the idea of his being asked
for a husband that his little man hurried in to see if the gay-eyed
barbarian was taking leave of his senses. In the evening he grew
restless, and, having nothing else to do—so he told himself—he went
out to the tea-garden on the little island which he had visited a few
nights before. For an hour he waited for something—for something
that did not appear. Finally, when the proprietor chanced to pass him,
he asked in the manner of one casually interested:

“The girl who danced and sang the other night—is she here?”

She was not, for which the proprietor humbly asked pardon. She
had not visited his poor place since the night the American had seen
her.

For some reason Jack suddenly lost interest in the house and
gardens, and returned to his home. But the next night—again because
he had nothing else to do—found him once more a guest at the tea-
garden. This time he did not leave at the end of an hour; possibly
because a weird dance was performed and a weird song sung by a girl
with vivid blue eyes. He could not see their color from where he sat,
but he knew they were blue.

After that he fell into the habit of visiting the gardens every night—
these were dull times in Tokyo—never anything else to do. Most of the
evenings so spent were intensely wearisome, but some few of them
were not. It may only have been a series of coincidences, but it so
happened that on the enjoyable evenings there was a weird dance and
a weird song, and on the others there were not the graceful swayings
of a little body, nor the wonderful music of a wonderful voice.

One evening, immediately after the song had been ended, he found
himself striding down the same road he had taken with the excited
theatrical manager, and this without consciously having decided upon
such a course. But he came down to the beach without seeing man or
woman, and, though he would not acknowledge to himself that he was
seeking any one, he carried away with him a keen sense of
disappointment.

For two weeks the dulness of Tokyo remained unabated, so that the
evenings offered nothing else to do save to go to the tea-gardens. At
the end of that time, Jack, becoming honest with himself, admitted
that there was nothing else, because there was nothing else he wanted
to do, and while in this frank mood he let it become known to himself
that there was nothing else in all the land of the rising sun that held so
much of interest to him as did the girl who had offered herself to him
for wife—nothing, indeed, in all the other lands of the earth. Why this
was, he did not know, not being one given to searching his own soul or
the souls of others.

While he reclined at his ease one afternoon in the little room in

which he lounged and smoked, he began to place her, in his
imagination, here and there in the house, to try the effect.

He set her in one of his largest chairs, notwithstanding she would

have been much more comfortable on the floor, in this same room, and
she added wonderfully to the appearance of things. He stood her
pensively by the tokonona; he nodded his head—very good! He placed
her out beneath a cherry-tree in his garden; again he nodded
approvingly. And a breakfast with her sitting opposite him! That would
be like unto the breakfasts eaten by the angels in heaven—if angels
partake of other than spiritual nourishment. Yes, she would be
wonderfully effective in his little house, would harmonize with it
greatly.

But what an odd figure she would make in an American dress! He

thought of her in a golfing costume, and smiled at his fancy.
Nevertheless, even in the gowns worn by the women of his own
country, she would be quaint and charming, he felt sure. She would be
awkward, of course, but would be graceful even in her awkwardness.
And she would transgress every polite convention, and would make
herself all the more delightful in so doing. He compared her to the
wives of some of the men he knew, to many of the girls he had met
since girls had begun to have interest for him, and his admiration for
her grew apace. He would be proud of her, he knew, for she was pretty
and would attract attention; men like their wives to draw eyes towards
them. She was unlike the wife of any of his countrymen he was likely
to meet, and this also was much.
 What would his parents think? They’d be angry at first, of course,
but they’d give in; they loved him, and couldn’t resist her; no one
could resist her. Anyhow, this prospective trouble was so far ahead that
there was no use in wasting thought upon it now.

Why the deuce hadn’t he learned her name? It was very

monotonous this being compelled to think of her only as “she” and
“her.”

But why had she come to him asking him to marry her? He shook
his head at that; he didn’t quite like it. But—oh, well, you know,
these Japs have no end of queer customs. This incident just illustrated
one of them. She was clearly a superior kind of a girl. Not an ordinary
geisha as he had thought when his eyes first fell on her. He had seen
enough of the geishas at the tea-houses to know that she was of a
different kind; to his Occidental eyes these last were most pleasing
creatures, but—

Just then his man straggled through the room and brought an end
to his musing. Marry her? He sat up straight. What had he been
thinking about? The idea was absurd. It was absurd for him to think
about marrying any one. He got to his feet, called back his man, and
ordered a jinrikisha to be brought to him. He rode off to Tokyo to
forget all about it.

But it would not be forgotten. After he had left the jinrikisha he

caught sight of her on the opposite side of the street, turning a corner.
He hurried after her, but when he reached the corner she was nowhere
to be seen. He looked into all the shops on either side of the street for
a distance of a hundred yards, but saw no one who bore the least
resemblance to her. Then he tramped about the immediate vicinity, his
sense of loss deepening with each minute, until he noticed that the
shop-keepers were eying him with suspicion. He gave up the search
and started back to his jinrikisha.

As he was swinging along disconsolately, his eyes lighted upon

another person whom he knew—Ido, the nakoda—and him Jack did
not let escape. He pounced down upon him, and clapped a hand upon
his shoulder.

“Hallo there!” he called out.

Ido started back as if he had been set upon by an enemy. He was

unused to such emphatic greetings. But when he saw who his assailant
was he slipped a smile upon his face, smirked and bowed, and hoped
that the august American’s days were filled with joy.

“They’ll do,” Jack answered. “And how are things with you?
Business good? Making many matches?”

Ido had introduced four persons to incomparable happiness—which

was to say, he had brought about two marriages. Had his lordship
come into like happiness?

No, his lordship had not.

“You making gradest mistage you’ whole lifetime,” Ido assured

him. “You nod yit seen Japanese woman that please you for wife?
No? I know nodder girl you’ excellency nod seen yit. Mos’ beautiful
in Japan. You like see her?”

“No, I’ve seen enough. By-the-way, Ido, what’s become of the

girl you brought around to my place? Married yet?” Jack put on a look
of indifferent interest.

“No, excellency.”

For one disinterested, Jack found much relief in this answer.

“But I thing she going to be,” Ido went on, calmly. “Two, three
—no, two odder gents—What you say?—consider—yes, consider her.”

These words drove relief from the disinterested Jack’s heart, and
instantly set up in its place a raging jealousy. But he compelled himself
to remark, quite easily, “You don’t say!”
 Ido confirmed his statement with a nod that was almost a bow.

“A very pretty girl,” Jack commented, loftily.

Ido’s reply was confined to a mere “Yes.” There was no use

going into ecstasies when no bargain was in sight.

“I think I’ll go around to see her, and congratulate her,” Jack

went on. “Where does she live?”

“I regretfully cannot tell.”

“Ah, well, let it go then. But, say, I really would like to see her
again before she’s married. Rather took a fancy to her, you know.
Couldn’t you bring her to call on me to-morrow morning?”

“I going to be very busy to-morrow.” Seeing no chance of

earning a marriage-fee, he saw no reason for taking the trip.

“I’ll pay you for your trouble—needn’t worry about that.”

Perhaps Ido could arrange to come; yes, now that he thought again,
he knew he could come.

So it was settled that he and the girl should visit Jack at ten
o’clock the next day.
 IV
IN WHICH MAN PROPOSES
The announcement of his man that Ido and his charge had arrived
contained no news for Jack, for he had been watching the road from
Tokyo since nine o’clock, and had seen them while they were yet afar
off. Nevertheless, he did not enter the zashishi until his man came to
him with word that guests from the city were awaiting him, and then
he had no definite idea of what he intended to do.

She was dressed exactly as she had been on her previous visit, and
she made obeisance almost to the floor, in greeting him, as she then
had done. He hastened her recovery from the deep courtesy by taking
her hands and raising her to an upright posture.

“You have come to see me again? I am very glad to see you,” he

said, with eager politeness.

“Nakoda say you wish see me. Tha’s why I come.” There was
not a trace of her former coquetry in her manner.

“Yes, I had to send Ido after you. I don’t suppose you would
ever have let me see you again if I had not.”

She shrugged her shoulders imperceptibly. “Me you don’ wish

marrying with. You send me ‘way. What I do?”

“We could be capital friends, even if we didn’t care to marry,

couldn’t we?”

“Frien’? I don’ wan’ frien’,” she returned, coldly.

“But I’d like to have you for my friend, all the same, though I’m
afraid it’s not possible. Ido”—he hesitated—“Ido says you’re
going to be married, you know.”

She inclined her head.

“You’re not married yet, are you?” he asked in alarm, forgetting

that he had put this same question to the nakoda the day before.

“Nod yit.”

“Do you—um—like him?”

“Which one, my lord?” She looked up at him innocently.

“Oh, both of them!” He was beginning to get angry. He would

find pleasure in laying violent hands upon the two, one at a time.

“Jus’ liddle bit, augustness.”

“Better than you do me?” he demanded, jealously.

She shook her head decisively. “You nod so ole, an nod so—hairy-
like.” She rubbed her little hands over her face, by which he
understood that the two wore beards. They were doubtless of his own
country.

He hardly knew what to say next, and the silence grew

embarrassing to him. She broke it by remarking, very quietly:

“Nakoda inform me you wan’ make liddle bit talk ad me.”

He turned to the match-maker, who was pretending deep interest in

a framed drawing on the wall. “Say, Ido, just step into the next room
a minute, will you?”

He turned back to the girl, as soon as Ido had obeyed him, with
extravagant alacrity.

“You have never even told me your name,” he said.

“Yuki.”
 “That means ‘Snowflake,’ doesn’t it? I like it. Well now, Yuki,
mayn’t I visit you at your home, before you are married?”

He was anxious to see what her people were like, and how she
lived.

“Mos’ poor house in all Tokyo—so liddle bit house augustness

nod lige come.”

“But I don’t care if it is. I want to come anyhow. I want to see

you, not the house. Won’t you tell me where you live?”

She shook her head. “No,” She said with simple directness, and
then added as an after-thought, “House too small. You altogedder too
big to enter thad liddle bit insignificant hovel.”

Her answer gave him offence. He wondered why she should

dissemble, wondered whether she was laughing at him. A glance at
her, however, and his distrust vanished. She seemed such a simple little
body, yet he knew he did not understand her.

Her eyes, which she had kept turned downward, slowly uplifted and
looked questioningly into his own. Such wonderful eyes! Such a simple,
exquisite face! He was suddenly suffused with a great wave of
tenderness, and he bent low, and gently made prisoners of her hands.
However indefinite his purpose had been up to this time, it was definite
enough now.

“So you remember, Yuki, what you asked me when you were here
before?”

“Yes.” She still gazed at him questioningly.

“Would you like to—would you rather marry me than one of those
other fellows?” he said, softly.

“Yes,” again, in the smallest voice this time.

He hesitated, and she asked, quickly, “You wan’ me do so?”

 “That’s just what I want, Yuki, dear,” he whispered, drawing her
hands to his lips.

“All ride.” She trembled—perhaps shivered is the better word—as

she said this, but gave no other sign of emotion.

Before Jack could so much as touch his lips to her forehead, Ido
entered smiling his professional blessing. It was evident that in the
other room he had found no drawing to distract his attention, and a
large new peephole in the immaculate shoji indicated where he had
given all his eyes and ears to what was going on, and he could wait no
longer to press his claim.

Jack, seeing an unpleasant duty before him, and desiring to have

done with it at once, told Yuki that he would be back in a minute, and
led the nakoda into the room out of which he had just come.

Ido immediately began to make terms. This part was loathsome to

the young man.

“Why,” he said, hotly, “if we’re to be married, she can have all
she wants and needs.”

That wouldn’t do at all, the nakoda told him, warily. There would
have to be a marriage settlement and a stated allowance agreed upon.
He would have to pay more, also, as she was a maid and not a widow.

When the ugly terms of the agreement were completed, the nakoda
bowed himself out, and Jack went back to Yuki. He found her changed;
her simplicity had left her, and her coquetry had returned. She stood
off from him, and he felt constrained and awkward. After a time she
demanded of him, with a shrewd inflection in her voice:

“You goin’ to lige me, excellency?”

“No question of that,” he answered promptly, smiling.

“No,” she repeated, “tha’s sure thing,” and then she laughed
at her own assurance, and she was so pretty he wanted to kiss her, but
she backed from him in mock alarm.

“Tha’s nod ride,” she declared, “till we marry.”

“God speed the day!” he said, with devout joyousness. Still

approaching her, as she backed from him, he questioned her boyishly:

“And you? Will you like me?”

She surveyed him critically. Then she nodded emphatically. They

laughed together this time, but when he approached her she grew
fearful. He did not want to frighten her.

“You god nod anudder wife?” she asked.

“No! Good heavens!”

“I god nod anudder hosban’,” she informed him, complacently.

“I should hope not.”

“Perhaps,” she said, “you marrying with girl in Japan thad god
marry before. Me? I never.”

“No, of course not.” He didn’t quite understand what she was

driving at.

Then she said: “You pay more money ad liddle girl lige me whad
nod been marry before?”

He recoiled and frowned heavily at her.

“I settled that matter with the nakoda,” he said, coldly.

Seeing he was displeased, she tried to conciliate him. She smiled at

him, engagingly, coaxingly.

“You don’ lige me any more whicheven.”

 But his face did not clear up. She had hurt him deeply by her
reference to money.

“Perhaps you don’ want me even,” she suggested, tentatively.

“I bedder go ‘way. Leave you all ‘lone.”

She turned and was making her way slowly out of the room, when
he sprang impetuously after her.

“Don’t, Yuki!” he cried, and caught her eagerly in his arms. She
yielded herself to his embrace, though she was trembling like a little
frightened child. For the first time he kissed her.

After she had left him, he stared with some wonder at the reflection
of himself in a mirror. So he was to be married, was he? Yes, there was
no getting out of it now. As for that, he didn’t want to get out of it—
of this he was quite sure. He was very well content—nay, he was
enthusiastically happy with what the future promised.

But his happiness might have been felt in less measure if his eyes,
instead of staring at his mirrored likeness, could have been fixed on
Yuki. She had borne herself with a joyous air to the jinrikisha, but once
within it, and practically secure from observation, the life had
seemingly gone out of her. The brown of her skin had paled to gray,
and all the way to Tokyo her eyes shifted neither to right nor left, but
stared straight ahead into nothingness, and once, when Ido looked
down, he found that they were filled with tears.
 V
IN WHICH THE EAST AND THE
WEST ARE UNITED
A few days later they were married. It was a very quiet little tea-
drinking ceremony, and, unlike the usual Japanese wedding, there was
not the painful crowd of relatives and friends attendant. In fact, no one
was present, besides themselves, save Jack’s man and maid and the
nakoda, while Yuki herself sang the marriage song.

They started housekeeping in an ideal spot. Their house, a bit of art

in itself, was built on the crest of a small hill. On all sides sloped and
leaned green highlands, rich in foliage and warm in color. Beyond these
smaller hillocks towered the jagged background of mountain-peaks,
with the halo of the skies bathing them in an eternal glow. A lazy,
babbling little stream dipped and threaded its way between the
hillocks, mirroring on its shining surface the beauty of the neighboring
hills and the inimitable landscapes pictured on the canvas of God—the
skies—and seeming like a twisted rainbow of ever-changing and
brilliant colors. But no surges disturbed its waters, even far beyond
where it emptied into the mellow Bay of Tokyo.

From their elevation on the hill they could see below them the
beautiful city of Tokyo, with its many-colored lights and intricate maze
of streets. And all about them the hills, the meadows, the valleys and
forests bore eloquent testimony to the labor of the Color Queen.

Pink, white, and blushy-red twigs of cherry and plum blossoms, idly
swaying, flung out their suave fragrance on the flattered breeze, the
volatile handmaid of young May, who had freed all the imprisoned
perfumes, unhindered by the cynic snarl of the jealous winter, and with
silent, pursuasive wooing had taught the dewy-tinctured air to please
all living nostrils. So from the glowing and thrilling thoughts that
tremble on the young tree of life is love distilled and, unmindful of the
assembling of the baffled powers of cold caution and warning fear, the
heart is filled with fountain tumults it cannot dissemble.

Jack Bigelow was fascinated and bewildered at the turn events had
taken. He was very good and gentle to her, and for several days after
the ceremony she seemed quite happy and contented. Then she
disappeared, and for a week he saw nothing of her.

He greatly missed her—his little bride of three or four days. He

longed ardently for her return, and her absence alarmed him. Her little
arts and witcheries had grown on him even in this short period of their
acquaintance.

Towards the end of the week she slipped into the house quietly, and
went about her household duties as though nothing unusual had
occurred. She did not offer to tell him where she had been, and he felt
strangely unwilling to force her confidence.

Instead of becoming better acquainted with her, each day found him
more puzzled and less capable of knowing or understanding her. Now
she was clinging, artless, confiding, and again shrewd and elfish. Now
she was laughing and singing and dancing as giddily as a little child,
and again he could have sworn she had been weeping, though she
would deny it stoutly, and pooh-pooh and laugh away such an idea.

He asked her one day how she would like to be dressed in American
clothes. She mimicked him. She mimicked everything and every one,
from the warbling of the birds to the little man and maid who waited
on them.

“I loog lige this,” she said, and humped a bustle under her
ridiculously tight omeshi, and slipped his large sun hat over her face.
Then she laughed out at him, and flung her arms tightly about his
neck.

“You wan’ me be American girl?”

 “You are a witch, Yuki-san,” he said.

“I wan’ new dress,” she returned, promptly, and held a pink

little palm out. He frowned. He almost disliked her when she spoke of
money. He filled her hands, however, with change from his pockets,
and when she broke away from him, which she did as soon as she had
obtained the money, he wanted to take it back. Her pretty laughter
sifted out to him through the shoji at the other side, and he knew she
was mocking him again.

“It is her natural love of dress and finery,” he told himself. “It is
the eternal feminine in her, and it is bewitching.”

The next day, as she sat opposite to him, eating her infinitesimal bit
of a breakfast—a plum, a small fish, and a tiny cup of tea—all on a
little black lacquer tray, he announced mysteriously that he was going
“on business” to the city.

She desired to accompany him, as became a dutiful wife.

No, he told her, that was impossible. His mission was of a secret
nature, which could not be divulged until his return.

Then she insisted that she would follow behind him after the
manner of a slave; and when he laughed at her, she begged quite
humbly and gently that he would condescend to honorably permit her
to go with him, and then he was for telling her his whole pretty story,
and the surprise he had concocted to please her, when she grew
capricious and insisted that she would not stir one little bit of an inch
from the house, and that he must go all alone to the city and attend to
his great, magnificent business!

He went down to Tokyo, and in his boyish, blundering fashion he

purchased silk and crépe and linen sufficient for fifty gowns for her.

She thanked him extravagantly. She could not imagine what she
would do with so much finery. Her honorable person was augustly
insignificant, and could not accommodate so much merchandise.
 “Now,” he thought with inward satisfaction, “that ghost of a
money question will be laid. She has everything she wants and shall
have. I want to do for her, and give her things without being wheedled
into it. It is that which irritates me.”

But a few days later she came to him breathless and flustered. Lo!
some one had stolen all the beautiful goods he had bought her. It was
neither their man nor maid. No, no! that was altogether impossible.
They were honest, simple folk, who feared the gods. But they were all
quite gone—where she could not say. Who had taken them, she could
not guess. Perhaps she, her unworthy self, and he, his honorable
augustness, had been extremely wicked in their former state, and the
gods were now punishing them in their present life. It would be wicked
and unavailing to attempt to search for the missing goods. It was the
will of the gods. Maybe the gods had been offended at such ruthless
extravagance. Ah, yes, that was a better solution of the theft. Of
course the gods were angry. What gods would not be? It was sinful to
buy so many things at once.

She affected great distress over the loss, and her husband,
somewhat bewildered at her elaborate apologies for the thief who had
stolen them, tried to comfort her by saying he would buy her double
the quantity again, whereat she became very solemn.

“No, no,” she said. “Bedder give me money to buy. I will

purchase jus’ liddle bit each time—to please the gods.”
 VI
THE ADVENTURESS
The man in the hammock was not asleep, for in spite of the lazy,
lounging attitude, and the hat which hid the gray eyes beneath, he was
very much awake, and keenly interested in a certain small individual
who was sitting on a mat a short distance removed from him. He had
invited her several times to reduce that distance, but up to the present
she had paid no heed to his suggestions. She was amusing herself by
blowing and squeezing between her lower lip and teeth the berry of
the winter cherry, from which she had deftly extracted the pulp at the
stem. She continued this strange occupation in obstinate indifference
to the persuasive voice from the hammock.

“I say, Yuki, there’s room for two in this hammock. Had it made
on purpose.”

She continued her cherry-blowing without so much as making a

reply, though one of her blue eyes looked at him sideways, and then
solemnly blinked.

“What’s the matter, Yuki? Got the dumps again, eh?”

No reply.

“Look here, Mrs. Bigelow, I’ll come over and elope forcibly with
you if you don’t obey me.”

She dimpled scornfully.

“Ah, that’s right! Smile, Yuki. You’re so pretty, so bewitching, so

irresistible when you smile.”

Yuki nodded her head coolly.

 “How you lige me smiling forever?” she suggested.

“That wouldn’t do,” he said, grinning at her from beneath his

tipped hat.

“That would be tiresome.”

“Tha’s why I don’ smiling to-day.”

“Why?”

“All yistidy I giggling.”

He shouted with laughter at her.

“Move your mat here, Yuki,” indicating a spot close to his

hammock. “I want to talk to you.”

“My ears are—”

“Too small to hear from that distance,” finished her husband.

“Come.”

“Thangs,” with great dignity, “I am quide comfor’ble. I don’

wan’ sit so near you, excellency.”

“Why, pray?”

“Why? Hm! I un’erstan’. Tha’s because I jus’ your liddle bit

slave.”

“You’re my wife, you little bit fraud.”

“Wife? Oh, I dunno.” She pretended to deliberate.

“Then you’ve tricked me into a false marriage, madam,”

declared her husband, with great wrath.

“Tha’s fault nakoda.”

 “What is?”

“Thad you god me for wife, and,” slowly, “servant.”

“Fault! Come here, servant, then. Servants must obey.”

“Nod so bad master, making such grade big noises,” she laughed
back daringly. “Besides, servant must sit long way off from thad same
noisy master.”

“And wife?”

“Oh, jus’ liddle bit nearer.” She edged perhaps half an inch
closer to him. “Wife jus’ liddle bit different from servant.”

“Look here, Mrs. Bigelow, you’re not living up to your end of the
contract. You swore to honor and obey—”

She laughed mockingly.

“Yes, you did, madam!”

“I din nod. Tha’s jus’ ole Kirishitan marriage.”

He sat up amazed.

“What do you know of the Christian marriage service?”

“Liddle bit.”

“Come over here, Yuki.”

“You like me sing ad you?”

“Come over here.”

“How you like me danze?—liddle bit summer danze?”

“Come over here. What’s a summer dance, anyhow?”

 She ran lightly indoors, and was back so soon that she seemed
scarcely to have left him. She had slipped on a red-and-yellow flimsy
kimono, and had decked her hair and bosom with flaming poppies.

“Tha’s summer sunshine,” she said, spreading her garment out

on each side with a joyous little twirl. “I am the Sun-goddess, and
you?—you jus’ the col’, dark earth. I will descend and warm you
with my sunshine.” For a moment she stood still, her head thrown
back, her face shining, her lips parted and smiling, showing the
straight little white teeth within. Then she danced softly, ripplingly,
back and forth. The summer winds were sighing and laughing with her.
Her face shone out above her lightly swerving figure, her little hands
and bare arms moved with inimitable grace.

“You are a genius,” he said to her, when she had subsided, light
as a feather blown to his feet.

“Tha’s sure thing,” she agreed, roguishly.

Her assurance in herself always tickled him immensely. He threw his

hat at her with such good aim that it settled upon her head. She
approved his clever shot, laughed at him, and then, pulling it over her
eyes, lay down on the mats and imitated his favorite attitude to a
nicety. He laughed uproariously. He was in fine humor. They had been
married over a month now, and she had not left him save that first
time. He was growing pretty sure of her now.

She perceived his good-humor, and immediately bethought herself

to take advantage. She put the rim of his hat between her teeth,
imitated a monkey, and crawled towards him, pretending to beg for her
performance. He stretched his long arms out and tried to reach her,
but she was far enough off to elude him.

“You godder pay,” she said, “for thad nize entertainments I

giving you.”

He threw her a sen. She made a face. “That all?” she said, in a
dreadfully disappointed voice, but, despite her acting, he saw the
greedy eagerness of her eyes. All the good-humor vanished.

“Look here, Yuki,” he said, with a disagreeable glint in his eyes,

“you’ve had a trifle over fifty dollars this week. I don’t begrudge
you money, but I’ll be hanged if I’m going to have you dragging it
out of me on every occasion and upon every excuse you can make.
You have no expenses. I can’t see what you want with so much
money, anyhow.”

“I godder save,” said Yuki, mysteriously, struck with this brilliant

excuse for her extravagance.

“What for?”

“Why, same’s everybody else. Some day I nod have lods money.
Whad I goin’ do then? Tha’s bedder save, eh?”

“I’ve married you. I’ll never let you want for anything.”

“Oh, you jus’ marry me for liddle bit while.”

“You’ve a fine opinion of me, Yuki.”

“Yes, fine opinion of you,” she repeated after him.

“There’s enough money deposited in a bank in Tokyo to last you

as long as you live. If it’s ever necessary for me to leave you for a
time, you will not want for anything, Yuki.”

“But,” she said, argumentatively, “when you leaving me I

henceforward a widder. I nod marry with you any longer. Therefore I
kin nod take your money.” This last with heroic pride.

“Boo! Your qualms of conscience about using my money are, to

say the least, rather extraordinary.”

“When you leaving me—” she commenced again.

“Why do you persist in that? I have no idea of leaving you.”

 “What!” She was quite frightened. “You goin’ stay with me
forever!” There was far more fear than joy in her voice.

“Why not?” he demanded, sharply, watching her with keen,

savage eyes.

“My lord,” she said, humbly, “I could nod hear of thad. It would
be wrong. Too grade sacrifice for you honorable self.”

He was not sure whether she was laughing at him or not.

“You needn’t be alarmed,” he said, gruffly. “I’m not likely to

stay here forever.” He turned his back on her.

Suddenly he felt her light little hand on his face. She was standing
close by the hammock. He was still very angry and sulky with her. He
closed his eyes and frowned. He knew just how she was looking; knew
if he glanced at her he would relent ignominiously. She pried his eyes
gently open with her fingers, and then kissed them, as softly as a tiny
bird might have done. Gradually she crawled into the hammock with
him, regardless of non-assistance.

“Augustness,” she said, her arms about his neck now, though she
was sitting up and leaning over him. “Listen ad me.”

“I’m listening.”

“Look ad me.”

He looked, frowned, smiled, and then kissed her. She laughed under
her breath, such a queer, triumphant, mocking small laugh. It made
him frown again, but she kissed the frown into a smile once more.
Then she sat up.

“Pray excuse me. I wan’ sit ad your feet and talk ad you.”

“Can’t you talk here?” he demanded, jealously.

 “Nod so well. I gittin’ dazzled. Permit me,” she coaxed. He
released her grudgingly. She sat close to him on the floor. She sighed
heavily, hypocritically.

“What is it now?”

“Well, you know I telling you about those moneys.”

“Yes,” he said, wearily. “Let’s shut up on this money question.

I’m sick of it.”

“I lige make confession ad you.”

“Well?”

“I god seventeen brudders and sisters!” she said, with slow and
solemn emphasis.

“What!” He almost rolled out of the hammock in his amazement.

“Seventeen!” She nodded with ominous tragedy in her face and

voice.

“Where do they live?”

“Alas! in so poor part of Tokyo.”

“And your father and mother?”

“Alas! Also thad fadder an’ mudder so ole lige this.” She
illustrated, bowing herself double and walking feebly across the floor,
coughing weakly.

“Well?” he prompted sharply.

“I god take all thad money thad ole fadder an mudder an’ those
seventeen liddle brudders an sisters. Tha’s all they god in all the
whole worl’.”