778 Glanders 



and isolation of the bacillus. When a subcutaneous inocu- 

 lation of some of the infectious pus is made, a tumefaction 

 can be observed in guinea-pigs in from four to five days. 

 Somewhat later this tumefaction changes to a caseous 

 nodule, which ruptures and leaves a chronic superficial ulcer 

 with irregular margins. The lymph-glands speedily become 

 invaded, and in four or five weeks signs of general infec- 

 tion appear. The lymph-glands, especially of the inguinal 

 region, suppurate, and the testicles frequently undergo the 

 same process. Later the joints are affected with a suppura- 

 tive arthritis, the pus from which contains the bacilli. The 

 animal eventually dies of exhaustion. No nasal ulcers 

 form in guinea-pigs. 



In field-mice the disease is much more rapid, no local 

 lesions being visible. For two or three days the animal 

 seems unwell, its breathing is hurried, it sits with closed 

 eyes in a corner of the cage, and finally, without any other 

 preliminaries, tumbles over on its side, dead. 



From the tissues of the inoculated animals pure cultures 

 are easily made. Perhaps the best places from which to 

 secure a culture are the softened nodes which have not 

 ruptured, or the joints. 



Diagnosis of Glanders. Straus* has given us a method 

 which is of great use, both for isolating pure cultures of the 

 glanders bacillus and for making a diagnosis of the disease. 

 But a short time is required. The material suspected to 

 contain the glanders bacillus is injected into the peritoneal 

 cavity of a male guinea-pig. In three or four days the 

 disease becomes established and the testicles enlarge; the 

 skin over them becomes red and shining; the testicles 

 themselves begin to suppurate, and often evacuate through 

 the skin. The animal dies in about two weeks. If, how- 

 ever, it be killed and its testicles examined, the tunica 

 vaginalis testis will be found to contain pus, and some- 

 times to be partially obliterated by inflammatory exudation. 

 The bacilli are present in this pus, and can be secured from it 

 in pure cultures. 



The value of Straus' method has been somewhat lessened 

 by the discovery by Kutcher,f that a new bacillus, which 

 he has classed among the pseudo- tubercle bacilli, produces 

 a similar testicular swelling when injected into the abdominal 



* "Compt. rendu Acad. d. Sciences," Paris, cvm, 530. 

 t "Zeitschrift fur Hygiene," Bd. xxi, Heft i, Dec. 6, 1895. 



