278 GLANDERS AND RHINOSCLEROMA. 



place, they are few in number, and it may be impossible to find 



any in sections. They have less powers of persistence, and dis- 



appear in the tissues much more quickly, than tubercle bacilli. 



There has been dispute as to whether or not they contain 



spores. Some consider cer- 



% . tain of the unstained portions 



* to be of that nature, and it has 



been claimed that these can be 

 stained by the method for stain- 

 ing spores (Rosenthal). But it 

 is very doubtful that such is the 

 case ; the appearances corre- 

 spond rather with mere breaks 

 in the protoplasm, such as are 

 , % ' met with in many other bacilli 



/ which do not contain spores, 



and the comparatively low 



FIG. ioo. Glanders bacilli from a pure 

 culture on glycerin agar. Stained with carbol- powers of resistance of glanders 



spores is strongly against their 

 being of that nature. The power of resistance is after all the 

 important practical point. 



Staining. The glanders bacillus differs widely from the 

 tubercle bacillus in its staining reactions. It stains with simple 

 watery solutions of the basic stains, but somewhat faintly (better 

 when an alkali or a mordant, such as carbolic acid, is added), 

 and even when deeply stained it readily loses the colour when a 

 decolorising agent such as alcohol is applied. We have obtained 

 the best results by carbol-thionin-blue (p. 101), and we prefer to 

 dehydrate by the aniline-oil method. In film preparations of 

 fresh glanders nodules the bacilli can be readily found by stain- 

 ing with any of the ordinary combinations, e.g. carbol-thionin-blue 

 or weak carbol-fuchsin. By using a stain of suitable strength no 

 decolorising agent is necessary, the film being simply washed in 

 water, dried, and mounted. Gram's method is quite inapplicable, 

 the glanders bacilli rapidly losing the stain in the process. 



Cultivation. (For ttie methods of separation, vide infra^ 

 The glanders bacillus grows readily on most of the ordinary 

 media, but a somewhat high temperature is necessary, growth 

 taking place most rapidly at 35 to 37 C. Though a certain 



