618 MEDICINES. 



It is said that mallein is not such a reliable test for o-landers 



o 



in mules, as in horses. 



Mr. Hunting considers that mallein detects glanders in at least 

 98 per cent, of the cases in which it is employed. We may un- 

 hesitatingly accept the correctness of this statement, when apply- 

 ing it to animals which are under favourable conditions for this 

 test. A veterinary surgeon who exercises an average amount of 

 care,, would certainly not have more than 5 per cent, of failures 

 in diagnosis with mallein, supposing that he tried it on a large 

 number of horses. 



Mallein is especially useful in those obscure cases in which no 

 outward symptom of the disease becomes apparent for a long 

 time. In this respect, it is particularly valuable to owners of 

 large studs of horses, in which glanders has broken out, or is 

 supposed to exist, so that the healthy animals may be separated 

 from those which are affected. 



The chief objections to the value of mallein are as follows: — 

 l^^'irst, that some authorities aver that mallein produces its typical 

 reactions in certain diseases other than glanders, as, for instance, 

 inflammation of the lungs and bronchitis. Even if this were true, 

 the fact that these diseases can generally be recognised, greatly 

 lessens the chance of any of them being mistaken for glanders. 

 Second, that healthy horses are said to occasionally react to 

 mallein. Both of these statements are entirely opposed to the 

 experience of the great French authority, Nocard (" Journal of 

 Comparative Pathology," December, 1897), and to that of English 

 veterinary surgeons. Third, that some glandered horses fail to 

 react, a remark which has reference only to three classes of in- 

 fected horses, namely, those which are in the short incubative 

 stage (p. 495) ; those which have been subjected to a series of 

 injections of mallein with unduly brief inten'als of time between 

 them ; and those which are very badly glandered, and which would 

 consequently be visibly affected. These objections have no prac- 

 tical weight. We should bear in mind that mallein is a com- 

 ])aratively new medicinal agent, and that the arguments against 

 its adoption were made when it was on its trial, and when its 

 manufacture Avas often carried out in a very imperfect manner. 



POST-MORTEM APPEARANCE OF THE LUNGS AFTER AN 

 INJECTION OF MALLEIN.— " With one injection of mallein, 

 especially the mallein obtained from the Pasteur Institute, there 

 was a distinct alteration in the post-mortem appearance of the 

 lungs, if the animal was killed within 48 hours after the injec- 

 tion. There were red streaks and spots, and, as pointed out by 

 Mr, Humphreys, a peculiar dropsical condition of the lungs which 



