134 GLANDERS 



the body and rapidly destroy skin, subcutaneous tissue and muscle, 

 exposing blood vessels, tendons and bones. Death usually occurs in 

 from one to three weeks. The most frequent primary lesion is in the 

 nose, though it may occur in the larynx, lungs or from a wound on 

 any part of the body. In about 90 per cent, of the cases, the course 

 is chronic and may continue for years. The chronic form in man is 

 by no means always fatal, the percentage of recovery given by 

 Bellinger being as high as 50 ; but no one else agrees with this estimate. 



The Bacillus. Bacillus mallei is a slightly bent rod with rounded 

 ends, whose length varies from one to two-thirds the diameter of red 

 blood corpuscles. It is sporeless, non-motile and non-liquefying. It 

 takes the ordinary basic stains, as methylene blue and gentian violet, 

 fairly well, but when intensive coloring is desired it is better to select 

 a stain containing a mordant, such as carbol-fuchsin. The stain is 

 easily removed with dilute mineral acid. This bacillus grows on all 

 ordinary culture media without characteristic appearances except 

 on potato. On the second day a typical potato culture shows a hard, 

 yellowish, transparent growth. This general appearance, which has 

 been likened to that of a layer of liquid honey, continues until from 

 the sixth to eighth day, when the transparence gradually disappears 

 and the color takes on a red tint resembling that of cuprous oxid. 

 The boundaries of the growth show a slightly greenish tint, while the 

 uncovered surface of the potato is grayish white. While the growth 

 on potato is quite unusual, it is not sufficiently characteristic to form 

 the sole basis in identification. For a sporeless organism, it may, when 

 protected from the light, retain its vitality for an unusually long time. 

 Wladmiroff states that the organisms from glycerin-bouillon tubes, 

 with the ordinary cotton plug, were found viable after four years. 

 Direct sunlight destroys this organism within from a few hours to a 

 few days depending on the thickness of the layer and the intensity of 

 the light. Bacillus mallei is rather resistant to mercuric chlorid, but is 

 easily destroyed by phenol (2 per cent.), zinc chlorid (2 per cent.), 

 and lime water (saturated solution). The disinfection of stables with 

 gaseous agents is, as a rule, not feasible on account of the openness of 

 barns. Saturated lime water is the best thing to use. 



Avenues of Infection. Many experiments have tested the possi- 

 bility of glanders infection through the unbroken skin, and while the 



