308 GLANDERS 



salivary glands, etc. In the chronic form a local granulomatous 

 condition may occur, which usually breaks clown and gives rise to 

 the formation of an irregular ulcer with thickened margins, and 

 sanious, often foul, discharge. The ulceration spreads deeply as 

 well as superficially, and the thickened lymphatics also have a 

 great tendency to ulcerate, though the lymphatic system is not 

 so prominently affected as in the horse. Deposits may form in 

 the subcutaneous tissue and muscles, and the mucous membrane 

 may become affected. The disease may run a very chronic 

 course, lasting for months or even years, and recovery may 



occur ; on the other 

 hand, such a case may 

 at any time take on the 

 characters of the acute 

 form of the disease and 

 rapidly become fatal. 



/ / The Glanders Bacil- 



lus. Microscopical 

 Characters. The glan- 

 ders bacilli are minute 

 rods, straight or slightly 

 curved, with rounded 

 ends, and about the same 

 length as tubercle bacilli, 

 but distinctly thicker 



(Fig. 89). They show, 



FIG. 89.-Glanders bacilli, -several con- however, _ considerable 

 tained within leucoytes, from peritoneal variations in size and in 

 exudate in a guinea-pig appearance, and their 



Stained with weak carbol-fuehsm. x 1000. , ., 



protoplasm is otten 



broken up into a num- 

 ber of deeply-stained portions with unstained intervals between. 

 These characters are seen both in the tissues and in cultures, 

 but, as in the case of many organisms, irregularities in form and 

 size are more pronounced in cultures (Fig. 90) ; short filamentous 

 forms 8 to 12 /x in length .are sometimes met with, but these are 

 on the whole rare. The organism is non-motile and does not 

 form spores, though some have considered certain of the non- 

 staining portions of the protoplasm to be of that nature. 



Tn the tissues the bacilli usually occur irregularly scattered 

 amongst the cellular elements ; a few may be contained within 

 leucocytes and connective-tissue corpuscles, but the position of 

 most is extracellular. They are most abundant in the acute 

 lesions, in which they may be found in considerable numbers ; 



