Anthrax refers to a pulmonary disease that is caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. This disease has been present since antiquity. It may be the sooty "morain" in the Book of Exodus, and is probably the "burning wind of plague" that begins Homer's Iliad. Accounts by the Huns during their sweep across Eurasia in 80 A.D. describe mass deaths among their horse and cattle attributed to anthrax. These animals, along with sheep, are the primary targets of anthrax. Indeed, loss to European livestock in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries stimulated the search for a cure. In 1876, Robert Koch identified the causative agent of anthrax.

The use of anthrax as a weapon is not a new phenomenon. In ancient times, diseased bodies were used to poison wells, and were catapulted into cities under siege. In modern times, research into the use of anthrax as a weapon was carried out...