GLANDERS. 269 



We have already spoken of bodies that looked like spores 

 in these bacilli, but from the fact that the glanders virus, 

 both in fluids and in tissues, loses its vitality after fifteen days' 

 drying, it must be assumed that the organism does not form 

 endospores similar to those that are found in bacillus subtilis, 

 for example. The bacillus grows best at a temperature of 

 37 C., it will not grow at 20 C., nor at 45 C. at the other 

 extreme. At 22 C. it commences to grow slowly, whilst 

 at 25 C. it flourishes most luxuriantly, although it rapidly 

 loses its virulence when cultivated for several genera- 

 tions outside the body. Commenting on this fact, Loffler 

 points out that glanders is essentially a disease of hot 

 countries, where the comparatively high temperature appears 

 to be extremely favourable to the development of the bacillus 

 outside the body, especially in such materials as fodder, 

 manure, and stable refuse generally. 



We have interesting evidence of this in statistics collected by Krabbe, 

 who gives the following proportion of horses affected with disease per 

 annum per 100,000 horses in the following countries : Norway, 6 ; Den- 

 mark, 8.5 ; Great Britain, 14 ; Sweden, 57 ; Wurtemburg, 77 ; Russia, 78 ; 

 Servia, 95 Belgium, 138; the French Army, 1,130; the Algerian Army, 

 1,548. 



As already mentioned, desiccation for twenty-one days is 

 usually quite sufficient to prevent the multiplication of the 

 bacillus when placed in nutrient media. Consequently it 

 may be possible, by proper ventilation, to diminish the mor- 

 tality from this disease even in the warmest countries. 1 



Another agent which helps greatly in preventing the mul- 

 tiplication of this bacillus is putrefaction, as the organisms or 

 products developed during that process appear to interfere 

 very markedly with the growth and multiplication of the 

 glanders bacillus. The most satisfactory of all disinfectants, 

 however, is heat, and it has been proved experimentally that 

 a temperature of 55 C., continued for ten minutes only, 

 is quite sufficient to destroy the bacillus, and with it the 

 infective power of the virus, from the fact that no spores, 

 probably, are formed to perpetuate the species. A spray of 

 steam would therefore, in all probability, be the most 



^ * Loffler, however, was able to kill with a virus that had been dried on 

 silk threads for eighty-nine days, and Fraenkel states that the organisms or 

 their spores withstand drying. 



