1.   Cutaneous, or skin, anthrax, characterized by black lesions on the hands, was not unheard of in textile manufacturing at that time.

2.   Doctors would consider an anthrax diagnosis only if a patient with flu-like symptoms or black lesions worked with animals or animal hides.

3.   Scab, a fungal disease that also causes nuts to fall prematurely, causes black lesions on the shucks and spots on twigs and the undersides of the foliage.

4.   Symptoms include black lesions, nausea, fever, and muscle pains.

5.   The infection enters through a skin cut or sore and progresses from a red welt to a black lesion called an eschar.