82 BACTERIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS. 



GLANDERS. 



Glanders is one of the infective granulomata and is 

 closely allied to tuberculosis : it differs, however, in 

 running a more rapid course and in the greater ten- 

 dency which the specific lesions exhibit to undergo 

 suppuration. It is caused by the bacillus mallei, an 

 organism which is nearly as long as the tubercle 

 bacillus and decidedly thicker. It stains readily with 

 all stains and is easily decolorised ; it loses its stain 

 when treated by Gram's method, and does not form 

 spores. 



The bacteriological diagnosis of the disease is not 

 easy, and should be referred to a public laboratory. A 

 quantity of the discharge from a suspected case should 

 be taken with aseptic precautions and transmitted as 

 soon as possible in a test tube or bottle which has been 

 sterilised by dry heat or by boiling. Pus had better be 

 sent in a pipette. 



Where abscesses are opened cultures taken direct 

 from the pus may possibly contain the bacillus in pure 

 culture. In this case it may be identified by the 

 characters of its growth upon potato. The colonies 

 have the colour and appearance of honey at first ; they 

 grow very rapidly, coalesce, and the potato is soon 

 covered with a moist-looking film which afterwards 

 becomes brown, the surface of the medium in the 

 neighbourhood becoming greenish-brown. If cultures 

 from pus grown on potato exhibit these appearances 

 and contain a short and thick bacillus which does not 

 stain by Gram's method, the case may be diagnosed 

 as being probably one of glanders, even although the 

 culture be not a pure one. 



