256 TEXT-BOOK OF BACTERIOLOGY. 



ble. Two or three days after the inoculation the breathing is ac- 

 celerated, the animals sit still in a corner of their cage with their 

 eyelids glued together, and all at once, without previous warning, 

 fall on one side, dead. 



Dissection shows the most extensive tissue changes, chiefly in 

 the spleen in Guinea-pigs, in fleld-mice also in the liver and occa- 

 sionally in the lungs. The chief point brought out by the dissec- 

 tion is (as also in the case of tuberculosis and other allied diseases) 

 the presence of tubercle-shaped neoplasms, which in glanders have 

 a decided tendency to degenerate — to soften. Macroscopically re- 

 garded they strongly resemble genuine tubercles, and appear as 

 grayish-white grains somewhat smaller than a millet-seed and ris- 

 ing slightly above the surface. In the field-mouse the short dura- 

 tion of the disease only allows the nodules to reach a limited size, 

 and in the liver, for example, one often sees quite small, extremely 

 numerous gray dots, hardly recognizable with the naked eye. 



Under the microscope these nodules are seen to consist of dense 

 accumulations of round cells, which also surround isolated masses 

 of greater size and epithelioid in character. From the centre an 

 advancing degeneration of the new formation is seen as in the 

 genuine tubercles. The cells degenerate into an evenlj'-opaque 

 mass without nuclei; complete dissolution of the tissue afterward 

 takes place, which results in purulent matter. 



In the nodules chiefly, but also in other places, we will find the 

 bacilli which are to be regarded as the cause of the changes that 

 have occurred. The finding of rod-cells in the sections is attended 

 with peculiar difficulties. Here, still more than in cover-glass prep- 

 arations, the bleaching which the glanders bacilli are apt to un- 

 dergo instead of the desired diminution of color is a troublesome 

 peculiarity, and the demonstration of glanders bacilli in tissue has 

 become a sort of test of the efficacy of the different methods of 

 staining. 



Loffler formerly recommended a special method of decoloration : 

 after long exposure to alkaline-methyl-blue, the preparations were 

 to be put into a mixture of sulphurous acid and oxalic acid com- 

 posed as follows : 



Distilled water, 10 c.cm. 



Concentr. sulphurous acid, .... 2 drops. 

 Five-per-cent oxalic acid, .... 1 drop. 



Tlie process was therefore as follows: 



1. Loffler's methyl-blue, . . . about 5 minutes. 



2. Oxalic and sulphurous acid, . " 5 seconds. 



3. Absolute alcohol, etc. 



