The term carbuncle comes from the Latin word carbuncŭlus. The concept, also referred to as a carbuncle, may refer to ruby: a precious stone of great value.
Carbuncle, carbuncle, and ruby, therefore, are synonymous. It is a crystallized mineral with a reddish color, which is characterized by its brightness and hardness. The carbuncle has among its components magnesia and alumina, two metal oxides.
Carbuncles are part of the corundum group: minerals that belong to group IV according to the so-called Strunz classification, a system devised by the scientist Karl Hugo Strunz in 1938. According to the Mohs scale (created by Friedrich Mohs) that orders minerals according to their hardness, carbuncle and the rest of the corundum belong to hardness 9.
Importantly, the idea of carbuncle is also used to name the carbunco a disease serious and contagious bacteria that produces Bacillus anthracis. Carbuncle or malignant anthrax usually affects livestock, although it is transmitted to humans.
When we talk about carbuncle as a disease that affects cattle, it is worth highlighting a series of important data in this regard, such as the following:
-One of the main problems to be able to end it is that it can reappear again. easy. And it is that, apparently, the bacterium that produces it has a spore form that makes it stay well attached to the earth even for a long time. Hence, when that is carved, the bacteria re-emerge.
-This disease is very dangerous and deadly for livestock. Thus, it is known that in 24 or 48 hours of having contracted it, animals can die. The symptom that will indicate that this death has been a consequence of the aforementioned pathology is bleeding from the different orifices of the body. Blood, yes, that does not coagulate.
-It is also established that the farmer who comes across a dead animal for that reason must take a series of important measures. First, not to be in contact with the blood without protection because it could contract the disease and second, not to move the animal’s body to transfer it to another place because that would bring the blood and, therefore, the bacteria to be “spread” by more ground.
-The veterinary experts what they recommend before the death of an animal by carbuncle is to bury it directly where its already inert body is. For that you would have to bury it and then pour quicklime over it.
In the case of man, carbuncle can be inhalational, intestinal or cutaneous. The inhalational anthrax, which is usually fatal, is characterized by fever, cough, breathing problems, cyanosis and sepsis.
The rare intestinal carbuncle initially resembles gastroenteritis but can lead to fatal septic shock. The cutaneous anthrax, finally, is the most common, characterized by papules.
Finally, in some countries, the firefly is called a carbuncle, an American beetle that emits light at night.