114 GLANDERS 



the first to declare that the nodules of glanders were independ- 

 ent, anatomical formations, which he placed under the heading 

 of granulation tumors. Gerlach was the strong advocate for 

 the exclusivel}- infectious origin of the disease. Leisering ap- 

 pears to have been the first to give an accurate description of 

 the lesions. 



The first biological researches into its nature were made 

 in 1868 b}' Zurn and Hallier, who found a fungus which the}^ 

 believed to be the cause of the disease. In 1882, Loftier and 

 Schiitz succeeded in finding the bacterium of glanders, in culti- 

 vating it, and in transmitting the disease to other animals by 

 inoculating them with pure cultures of this organism. Their 

 researches furnished the positive proof that glanders is a spe- 

 cific, infectious disease, produced exclusively' by Bacterium 

 mallei. 



ij gg. Geographical distribution. Glanders exists in 

 the greater part of the civilized world. It is more common in 

 the temperate zones, w^here traffic in horses is active. In the 

 United States it was largely confined to the Northern States 

 before 1S61, but it spread over the South in connection with 

 the civil war. It is said to have entered Mexico with the 

 American cavalry in 1847. Similar!}-, Portugal is said to have 

 been exempt until the invasion b}' Napoleon in 1797. Central 

 Hindoostan was said to be free from it until the war with Afghan- 

 istan in 1S78. In all these cases, the movements of cavalr}-, 

 artillery and of commissary trains were responsible for the 

 introduction of the disease into new territory. In our own 

 case the sale of horses and mules at the close of the civil war 

 produced a very general diffusion of this disease from which 

 the country is still suffering. 



Insular places, especially if far from the main land and free 

 from importation of horses, usually escape. Thus glanders is 

 very rare in Iceland and in the Faroe islands. In Australia, 

 Tasmania and New Zealand it is reported to be unknown. 



