Anthrax is a serious infectious disease. It mainly hits cattle, sheep, and other animals, but people can get it too — from sick animals or from spores left in the environment. You will hear the word in farm news, in science, and sometimes in news about weapons; in ordinary life in Taiwan you almost never need it. The name comes from an old Greek word for a boil and for charcoal, because the skin form can make a dark sore. Though actually, there is more than one form. The skin form is the one that looks like a dark sore; other forms attack the lungs or the gut and are more dangerous. It is not “a mild farm cold.”