482 THE GLANDERS BACILLUS 



solution of phloridzin and dried, the mice became diabetic and then readily suc- 

 cumbed to an inoculation of the glanders bacillus. 



Ground squirrels. Ground squirrels are highly susceptible to glanders and 

 succumb within a week, the bacillus being distributed throughout the internal 

 organs. The virulence of the organism can be increased by passage through 

 these animals (Gamaleia). 



Cats. Cats are susceptible to glanders. Cutaneous inoculation is followed 

 by a " chancre," death taking place in 15-30 days. Post mortem the internal 

 organs are seen to be sprinkled with glanders nodules. 



Sheep. Goats. Both sheep and goats can be readily infected experi- 

 mentally. 



Dogs. Dogs are more or less immune. In young dogs only does the 

 disease become generalized and prove rapidly fatal. Inoculation of adults 

 of the species through superficial skin scratches is followed by a characteristic 

 local lesion. If the inoculation be made on the skin of the forehead the 

 part becomes oedematous in 3-5 days and ulcers are formed which exude a 

 very virulent discharge. The ulcers extend for the first week or two then 

 become stationary and finally cicatrize, the animal recovering completely. 

 Nocard has however recorded fatal cases of the chronic form of the disease 

 in dogs. 



The natural immunity of the dog has been experimentally overcome in several 

 different ways. Trasbot, for instance, produced a fatal infection by inoculating 

 dogs with material from an infected lion. Strauss inoculated huge doses of culture 

 into the veins of adult dogs with the result that the animals died with lesions of 

 glanders in the skin and internal organs. Tedeschi also induced a fatal infection 

 by inoculating cultures into the brain, spinal cord and nerves. 



Rabbits. Rabbits are only slightly susceptible to experimental inoculation. 

 Sub-cutaneous inoculation is followed by an ulcer which resolves spontaneously. 

 Intra-venous inoculation of cultures is followed by death (Loe filer). A virus 

 which has been passed through ground squirrels w r ill kill rabbits on sub- 

 cutaneous inoculation (Gamaleia). 



Cattle. Swine. These animals are practically immune against glanders. 

 Spinola, however, has succeeded in infecting pigs, and Cadeac and Mallet 

 have shown that pigs are susceptible to infection when their resistance has 

 been lowered by some antecedent disease. 



Rats. Birds. Both rats and birds are immune to glanders. 



SECTION II. MORPHOLOGY. 

 1. Microscopical appearance. 



The glanders bacillus is a small, straight or slightly curved, non-motile, 

 rod-shaped organism of about the same length (3-5/>0 as but thicker than the 

 tubercle bacillus : the ends of the bacillus are rounded. In cultures the 

 organisms occur singly or in pairs while in the tissues and in pus they are often 

 found in small masses. Occasionally the bacilli are so short as to have the 

 appearance of micrococci, but on the other hand long branched filamentous 

 forms are sometimes found. In old cultures involution forms consisting 

 of filamentous irregularly swollen bacilli and granules arranged in chains like 

 cocci are seen. 



Staining reactions. The glanders bacillus stains with solutions of the 

 aniline dyes containing a mordant such as Loeffler's blue, Kiihne's blue, 

 carbol-thionin, or carbol-fuchsin. It does not stain by Gram's method. 



In stained preparations the glanders bacillus has a granular appearance, 



