704 Glanders. 



ditions. Auto-infection of animals by the contamination of 

 their food and drinking water with their nasal and pulmonary 

 secretions also bears a certain relationship to the gradual ag- 

 gravation of the disease. 



In a certain proportion of cases the disease terminates in 

 recovery. The possibility of a local healing of the ulcers is 

 proved by the presence of the characteristic cicatrices on the 

 nasal mucous membranes and on the skin, as well as by the 

 frequently observed dry, cheesy and, in some instances, partly 

 calcified foci in the lungs and other internal organs the glander- 

 ous nature of which has repeatedly been demonstrated. 



According to observations made in the Avarmer southern 

 countries, for instance, in Southern Russia (Noniewicz, Semmer) 

 the course of the disease is not infrequently benign in character, 

 and horses that have already presented clinical s^^nptonls of 

 the disease may occasionally recover (Semmer). Finally the 

 possibility of recovery from the disease has been demonstrated 

 by observations occasionally made in connection with mallein 

 tests, according to which horses that have once reacted to the 

 test cease to react to subsequent applications of this agent 

 and remain free frota disease thereafter, while post-mortem 

 examination reveals, in various internal organs, encapsuled 

 nodules that are in every respect similar to those of glanders. 

 These observations point directly to the fact that even in 

 northern countries (Middle Europe) the disease not infrequently 

 results in recovery in its initial stages, when only a few nodules 

 have as yet developed in the internal organs. 



In the stables cf the Compagnie generale ties Voitures 2,037 out of 10,231 

 horses gav6 characteristic reactions to the mallein test in 1895; of these 687 sub- 

 sequently developed manifest symptoms of glanders, while 338 horses ceased to 

 react to later injections of mallein A part of the non-reactors were subsequently 

 killed for other reasons, and in all of them Nocard found fibrous or calcareous 

 lesions in the internal organs. 



The possibility of recovery from the disease should, how- 

 ever, be counted upon only in those cases that present no clinical 

 evidences and that have been determined by the mallein reac- 

 tion. On the other hand, all cases showing clinical signs of 

 infection should, for practical purposes at least, be considered 

 as incurable, although local processes may heal while new 

 lesions develop in other parts of the body. 



Diagnosis. Since the various s}^uptoms do not present a 

 characteristic clinical picture in the chronic form of the disease 

 until the later stages, and since symptoms that are characteris- 

 tic in themselves, such as nodes and ulcers in the nasal mucous 

 membrane, do not occur until the disease is quite advanced, the 

 definite diagnosis of glanders upon the basis of clinical sjTnp- 

 toms alone is frequently a difficult matter 



In stables where the disease has already been recognized 



