Moving through three interlinking geographical levels, we have seen the emergence of anthrax-related diseases in new contexts during the age of bacteriology. Along the way, these conditions were affected by social, cultural, economic and geographical constraints, as well as medical and biological influences. The anthrax that came out of this multilayered and complex process of interaction and exchange was a modern disease. It was a product of globalization, capitalization and technologization, and by the end of the period in question anthrax was discussed in terms of international relations and global capitalism, as well as medicine, compensation and suffering.

We began with three major questions about anthrax. Firstly, what was the impact of the so-called Bacteriological Revolution on the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of anthrax? Secondly, how and why did the many locally defined, anthrax-like diseases that appeared in public and professional discourse during the nineteenth century coalesce into the seemingly unified understanding of anthrax that was crystallized by around 1920? And thirdly, to what extent and in what ways did geographical locations and the exchange of ideas, practices and materials between these matter for this story? In order to answer these questions, we have looked at anthrax and proto-anthrax diseases in a wide variety of different social and cultural contexts and at three geographical levels: local, national and global.