CHAPTER XIX. 



GLANDERS, ANTHRAX, PYOCYANEUS, INFECTIOUS 

 ABORTION: ACIDURIC BACTERIA. 



BACILLUS MALLEI. 



Historical. Glanders is a disease primarily of animals having an 

 undivided hoof: horses, asses, and mules. It may be acute or chronic, 

 and two clinical types are recognized: glanders, an initial infection 

 of the nasal mucosa and regional lymphatic glands, later an involve- 

 ment of the internal organs, more commonly the lungs; and farcy, 

 a cutaneous glanders, in which the cutaneous lymphatics are involved 

 with the formation of nodules (farcy buds) which frequently ulcerate 

 and discharge a cohesive sticky secretion. Man is occasionally 

 infected, the disease being one of the most fatal known. The causa- 

 tive organism, Bacillus mallei, was described by Loffler and Schiitz 

 in 1882. 1 



Morphology. Bacillus mallei is a small bacillus with rounded or 

 somewhat attenuated ends, measuring from 0.5 to 0.75 micron in 

 diameter, and from 2 to 5 microns in length. The organisms occur 

 singly and in pairs in culture media, although long filamentous forms 

 are not uncommon on potato. In pus and from tissues the bacilli 

 occur in groups or clusters. The bacilli frequently appear as short, 

 almost coccoid elements, both in culture and in vivo. Older cultures 

 frequently contain many branched forms. The glanders bacillus is 

 non-motile, and possesses no flagella. Capsules and spores have not 

 been observed. The organism stains faintly with ordinary anilin 

 dyes^ better with those having an alkaline reaction. It is Gram- 

 negative ^ t Stained with LofHer's alkaline methylene blue, the 

 organism exhibits irregularity of colorable material; the bacilli may 

 even resemble groups of cocci with faintly stain able substance con- 

 necting the deeply stained, round granules. Zeit 2 has called atten- 

 tion to the resemblance of B. mallei in pus and tissue to staphylococci 

 when stained with methylene blue, and the possibility of error in diag- 



1 Deutsch. med. Wchnschr., 1882, No. 52. 



2 Jour. Am. Med. Assn., 1909, lii, 181. 



