MALLEIN 485 



horse a violent reaction follows characterized by an oedema at the site of 

 inoculation, rigors, and a rise of temperature of perhaps 3 or 4 C. within 

 24 hours commencing a few hours after the inoculation and persisting for 

 several days. Whenever an animal reacts in this way to an inoculation of 

 mallein a diagnosis of glanders may be made with confidence. 



The inoculation of mallein is a valuable agent in the diagnosis of those 

 cases of glanders in the horse where there is neither ulcer nor nasal discharge 

 latent glanders ; but it is not applicable to the diagnosis of glanders in 

 man on account of the intensity of the resulting reaction. 



When an animal is suffering from very advanced lesions or when the 

 temperature of a suspected horse reaches or exceeds 39 C. the reaction may 

 fail. 



If the inoculation be followed by a rise of temperature not exceeding 1 or 

 1'5 C. the diagnosis must be regarded as doubtful, and the animal should be 

 left alone for 3 or 4 weeks and then tested again : or if delay be inconvenient, 

 by combining the original mallein test with cultivation and inoculation 

 experiments carried out with material from the suspected animal it 

 should be possible to come to a definite conclusion. 



The method of conducting the mallein test. In veterinary practice a diluted 

 solution of mallein should be used rather than the crude product. 



5 per cent, aqueous solution of carbolic acid. - 9 paits. 



Crude mallein, - 1 part 



The horse to be tested should be kept in its stable for 2 days before the 

 test is performed and its temperature taken morning and evening because 

 as already pointed out if the temperature before inoculation exceed 39 C. 

 the reaction may fail. On the third day 2*5 c.c. of the diluted mallein is 

 inoculated beneath the skin of the shoulder and the temperature taken thrice 

 daily. In animals infected with glanders the temperature will begin to rise 

 about 8-10 hours after the inoculation and will remain up for about 2 days. 



Experiments have been carried out to determine whether, as is the case in 

 the diagnosis of tuberculosis with tuberculin, a characteristic reaction occurs 

 in glandered animals if mallein be instilled into the eye or dropped on super- 

 ficial skin scratches ; but all observers are agreed that these methods of 

 applying the test are neither so reliable nor so constant in their results as the 

 original method of sub-cutaneous inoculation. 



3. Vaccination. 



There are considerable difficulties in the way of prophylactic vaccination 

 against glanders and up till the present the results have not been at all 

 satisfactory. 



Straus having shown that dogs could be infected by inoculating cultures of 

 exalted virulence into the veins found that a previous inoculation of old 

 attenuated cultures protected the animals against infection by intra-venous 

 inoculation. But dogs immunized in this way are not immune against 

 cutaneous inoculation which is followed by cutaneous ulcers ; and Galthier has 

 shown that by repeatedly inoculating an animal ulcers can be produced on as 

 many as five successive occasions. 



Sakaroff and Finger found that a previous inoculation of old cultures or 

 of cultures sterilized by heat at 100 C. caused the disease to run a slower 

 course than usual in rabbits but they were not able to prevent the animals 

 from dying. 



Nicolle has attempted the immunization of guinea-pigs by intra-cardiac 

 inoculation of a virulent virus. 



The immunizing experiments of Babes (injections of mallein). of Sakaroff 



