REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 61 



The potatoes used were prepared according to the method suggested 

 by Bolton (Medical News, 1887, i, 318). They are pared and cut in 

 such a way as to fit into large test tubes. The top is cut so as to 

 form an inclined surface upon which the inoculated material is to be 

 deposited. A small amount of water is put into the test tube to keep 

 the lower end of the potato constantly wet. The tubes are then 

 plugged with cotton wool and kept in the steam sterilizer from one 

 and one-half to two hours. If then the lower end of the plug is dipped 

 into sterile melted parafnne the evaporation and consequent drying up 

 of the potato is reduced to a minimum. In such tubes glanders bacilli 

 grow very well, and as a rule their growth will depend on the con- 

 dition of the potato surface as regards moisture. There will be no 

 growth, or at best a very feeble growth, if the surface of the potato is 

 partly dry and hard. 



Of the few house mice, rabbits, and the dog inoculated none took 

 the disease, thus confirming the results of Loffler and others that these 

 animals are not proper subjects for inoculation. 

 It is, in general, best to chloroform guinea pigs when the lesions 

 have become pronounced, especially when the cultures are desired. 

 If allowed to die the term of the disease is unnecessarily prolonged; 

 they are very apt to die at night, and in midsummer decomposition 

 immediately sets in. Moreover, death may take place through sec- 

 ondary infection of the body with septic bacteria, which enter through 

 the ulcers. In such cases pure cultures can no longer be expected. 

 It is often necessary to make a diagnosis as speedily as possible, to 

 release or destroy the suspected horses as the case may be. Hence, 

 as soon as the external lesions, such as suppuration of the glands or 

 testicles, has fairly begun, the animal may be killed and cultivations 

 made from the pus in these organs. This may be all the more de- 

 sirable if several guinea pigs have been inoculated at the same time, 

 one or more of which should be kept for future examination if the 

 first should fail to yield any positive result. 



Diagnosis of glanders by extirpating the submaxillary lymphatic 

 glands and malting cultures therefrom. It has been suggested that 

 the diagnosis of glanders in the horse may be made directly by re- 

 moving during life the swollen submaxillary glands situated on the 

 under surface of the lower jaw and making cultures from them. Such 

 operations can of course be undertaken only by veterinarians. Occa- 

 sionally the swelling of these glands is the first suspicious sign. 

 The swelling may be simply due to an increase and condensation of 

 the substance of the gland. When the disease has existed for weeks 

 and months the interior of the lobes of the gland usually contain 

 minute cavities filled with a dry, caseous substance. These are con- 

 sidered almost diagnostic by Dieckerhoff. 



Rieck (Zeitschr.f. Thiermedicin, 1888, xiv, 107), recently reported 

 a case in which the diagnosis was made in this way: 



A seven-year old mare from a stable in which 6 cases of glanders had occurred 



within the past 6 months was suspected of glanders. The only sign upon which 

 this suspicion was based was a painless, diffused, by no means characteristic swell- 

 ing of the right submaxillary gland. There was no nasal discharge, no cough. 



The gland was removed, place 1 for 15 minutes in a iV per cent, solution of mercuric 

 chloride, washed in alcohol and cut with flamed knives. In the substance of the 

 gland were found two grayish-white soft foci as large as peas, not yet broken down. 

 Cultures made by placing particles of these foci upon cigar in tubes revealed the 

 presence of glanders bacilli. The horse was killed, and at the autopsy ulcers were 

 found on the septum, and the lungs were affected in a manner characteristic of the 

 disease. The author rightly claims that without the ait), of bacteriology the disease 

 could not have been determined during life, 



