In the past, outbreaks of anthrax (along with other epizootic diseases) among animals have undoubtedly helped to prepare the way for major outbreaks of epidemic disease in humans. When anthrax has decimated herds of cattle or sheep, for example, human populations have faced starvation, which in turn has lowered their ability to resist those epidemics. Anthrax has been known from antiquity, although until relatively recently it was not clearly separated from other diseases with similar manifestations. Possibly, sudden death of animals at pasture, blamed by Aristotle (and subsequently by his followers over the centuries) on the shrewmouse and its "poisonous bite," may in many cases have resulted from the peracute form of anthrax commonly known as splenic apoplexy.

Nineteenth century authors speculated that the fifth and sixth plagues of the Egyptians (as described in Exodus), which struck their herds and the Egyptians themselves, might have been anthrax. Evidence centers on the Israelites, who were installed on sandy ground above the level of the Nile. They escaped the plagues, whereas those who did not lived in areas subject to flooding, which could have provided perfect conditions for growth of the bacillus. Three decadesPage 31  before the birth of Christ, Virgil vividly described an animal plague that had much in common with anthrax and warned against its transmission to people through contact with infected hides.

Through the centuries, there are many records of animal plagues that almost certainly were anthrax but were often confused with other complaints. By 1769, when identification of epidemic diseases of animals and humans had become more precise, Jean Fournier in Dijon, France, classified a number of different lesions as a single disease entity (anthrax), which he called charbon malin. More importantly, he recognized the transmission of the disease to people and drew attention to cases occurring in workers who handled raw hair and wool, a theme developed in several French accounts during the following decade. From the mid-nineteenth century, the disease became a problem in English factories as well, and subsequently in Scotland. About the same time, the woolen industries began experiencing the problem as wool and hair from the East were introduced into British trade. Woolsorting, until then considered a particularly healthful occupation, suddenly produced an alarming increase in the number of deaths and extent of disease among workers. The workers themselves suspected an association between the disease and the growing proportion of wool and hair imported from the East. By the late 1870s, concern in Yorkshire factories was acute, but by then the new bacteriology had identified the cause of anthrax: J. Bell demonstrated that both woolsorters' disease and malignant pustule in humans derived from anthrax in animals.

Bell's work was made possible by the work of Davaine and that of Robert Koch in the 1860s and 1870s. During the nineteenth century, the study of anthrax and its use of animal models had become an important part of the framework for the emergence of bacteriology as an academic discipline. In France, Eloy Barthélemy established the transmissibility of anthrax in 1823. From 1850 onward, study of the putative agent was pursued, beginning with the results obtained by Aloys Pollender, then by Pierre Rayer, and finally by Davaine who, during extensive work with guinea pigs in the 1860s, bestowed on it the name of bactéridie , which survived in the literature for a long time. From 1876 onward, the anthrax bacillus became a cornerstone of both Koch's theories and his development of pure culture methods; in the late 1870s, W. Greenfield and H. Toussaint reported studies of acquired immunity against anthrax in animals. Pasteur took over the field and in 1881 demonstrated that immunity could be produced through vaccination of sheep.