Subcutaneous Mallein Test. 



713 



tuberculin testing are equally applicable to the mallein test 

 (see p. 577). There seems to be a difference, however, in regard 

 to the immunizing effects of repeated injections of these two 

 diagnostic agents in that horses will usually react typically to 

 repeated injections of mallein made at short intervals. In 

 some cases the reaction becomes even more pronounced (thus 

 Galtier observed 11 positive reactions in a glandered horse in 

 the course of a month). 



Fig. 123. Late Thermal Mallein Reaction. 



Reports on the use of niaUein on a large scale have with few ex- 

 ceptions been favorable in that post-mortem examinations as a rule 

 confirmed the diagnosis of the disease. Thus according to Preusse's 

 compilations of reports recorded in the literature up to 1897, positive 

 reactions were confirmed by post-mortem examination in 94.7%, negative 

 in 95.7% of all cases (Foth estimates the value of the reactions at 

 86%, and 94% respectively, Rudovesky at 87% and 96%). 



According to the compilations of Hutyra & Preisz, post-mortem examinations 

 were held on 85 out of 410 horses tested with mallein in Hungary up to 1893; 

 of these 14 gave a reaction of less than 1.5°, and 6 of them were found affected 

 with glanders; 12 gave a reaction of 1.5 to 2.0°, and all of them were found 

 affected; 59 gave a reaction of 2.0° or more, and 58 of them were found affected 

 with glanders; in one the post-mortem findings were negative, but this one gave 

 an atypical reaction. In those cases where the temperature elevation was more 

 than 1.5° and exceeded 39.5°, all horses without exception were found affected. 



Kitt (1901) basing his observations on reports from the Kingdom of Bavaria 

 since 1892 showed that mallein always produces a prompt reaction in glandered 

 horses, and that reactions failed to appear in more than 120 other diseases (nasal 

 catarrh, disease of the maxillary sinus, heaves, etc.). According to Feist 72 out of 

 73 reacting horses in Alsace-Lorraine were found affected with glanders, while on 

 the other hand not one out of 287 non-reactors were found affected. Schindelka of 

 Vienna maintains that, aside from glanders, only pulmonary emphysema will pro- 

 duce an occasional reaction to mallein, basing his statement on the results of 503 

 tests and 148 post-mortem examinations. Jensen, of Denmark, collected data cover- 

 ing 184 cases; in 177 cases the post-mortem findings confirmed the diagnosis as 

 based upon the text, in six cases the results were doubtful, and in one case the 

 result was of an opposite character. Noeard (1897) on the basis of several thou- 

 sand tests conducted by him in France, concluded that a positive mallein reaction 

 justified the diagnosis of glanders. A negative reaction on the other hand justified 

 the diagnosis of an absence of glanders, irrespective of the presence of any clinical 

 symptoms that simulate this disease. Upon this basis he succeeded in differen- 



