PREVENTIVE MEDICINE 269 



them the disease is serious and frequently fatal. Infection is 

 usually contracted by inoculation. 



Using the term period of incubation to mean the time elapsing 

 between infection and the moment at which visible lesions may be 

 found on post-mortem examination, one may set down 10 to 15 

 days as being the average (Hunting). Feeding on small quantities 

 of infective material is, however, followed by a rise in temperature 

 in 3 or 4 days. 



PREVENTIVE MEASURES. Glanders is a scheduled disease, and 

 for its control the local authorities are responsible. Since 

 the year 1907, when the Glanders and Farcy Order was introduced, 

 the number of outbreaks has shown a steady decline and one may 

 expect that in a few years the disease will be of rare occurrence 

 in Great Britain, if not totally eradicated. In discussing preventive 

 measures it is essential to remember that glanders frequently occurs 

 in a latent form, and it is only in a certain proportion of animals 

 that the disease becomes clinically evident. It is thus seen that 

 in the horse there is a marked tendency to natural recovery. This 

 is further indicated by the fact that many animals which have 

 reacted to the mallein test fail to do so later, and that from such 

 animals glanders bacilli cannot be isolated after death. It is 

 important, however, to notice that in some instances a horse which 

 has ceased to react may still be glandered. With regard to the 

 recovery of animals from glanders, the following facts in connection 

 with outbreaks among the horses of the London County Council 

 which occurred in 1900 and 1901 are of interest : Of 63 reacting 

 animals 13 became clinical cases and 9 were found to be glandered 

 when killed later; 25 proved doubtful in final test- and were 

 slaughtered; 16 others ceased to react but were not destroyed. 

 Thus of 63 reactors at least 16 ceased to react, and in these it was 

 proved that recovery was real. An outbreak in 1895 in Paris 

 described by Nocard showed that of 10,234 horses tested 2037 

 reacted and these were all latent cases. Of these 687 became clinical 

 cases and 338 ceased to react. Some of the latter were examined 

 after slaughter, and no glanders bacilli were recovered from any. 



The hygienic measures to be adopted when a case of glanders 

 has been detected in a stud are the early use of mallein to discover 

 latent cases with the removal and destruction of all such as react. 

 All contact animals must be tested and the term " contact " must 

 include horses under the same ownership which may be in different 

 localities or stables. Doubtful cases must be retested in a month, 

 and indeed it is in reality essential to apply a second test to the 

 entire stud a month or so after the initial test. Failure to detect 



