446 APPLICATION OF METHODS OF BACTERIOLOGY 



from the histological aspect, stand midway between the 

 acute purulent and the chronic inflammatory processes." 1 

 Evidently these differences are only to be explained by dif- 

 ferences in the nature of the causes that underlie the several 

 affections. We have studied the characteristics of bacterium 

 tuberculosis; we shall now take up the bacillus of glanders 

 and note the striking differences between them. 



BACTERIUM MALLEI (LOFFLER), MIGULA, 1900. 



SYNONYMS: Bacillus mallei (Loffler), 1886; Rotz bacillus, Kranzfeld, 

 1887. 



In 1882 Loffler and Schiitz discovered in the diseased 

 tissues of animals suffering from glanders a bacterium that, 

 when isolated in pure culture and inoculated into susceptible 

 animals, possesses the property of reproducing the disease 

 with all its clinical and pathological manifestations. It is 

 therefore the cause of the disease. 



This organism is a rod, with rounded or slightly pointed 

 ends. It usually stains somewhat irregularly. (See Fig. 

 78.) When examined in stained preparations its continuity 

 is marked by alternating darkly and lightly stained areas. 

 It is usually seen as a single rod, but may occur in pairs, 

 and less frequently in longer filaments. 



The question as to its spore-forming property is still an 

 open one, though the weight of evidence is in opposition 

 to the opinion that it possesses this peculiarity. Certain 

 observers claim to have demonstrated spores in the bacteria 

 by particular methods of staining; but this statement can 



1 For a further discussion of the pathology and pathogenesis of this 

 disease, see Lehrbuch der pathologischen Mykologie, by Baumgarten, 

 1890. See, also, Wright, The Histological Lesions of Acute Glanders in 

 Man, Journal of Experimental Medicine, i, 577. 



