CHAPTER XXXI 



GLANDERS 



Bacillus Mallei (LOffler and Schutz)* 



General Characteristics. — A non-motUe, non-flagellate, non-sporogenous, non- 

 liquefying, non-chromogenic, non-aerogenic, aerobic and optionally anaerobic, 

 acid-forming and milk coagulating bacillus, pathogenic for man and the lower 

 animals, staining by ordinary methods, but not by Gram's method. 



Glanders, "Rotz" (German) or "morve" (French), is an infectious 

 mycotic disease which, fortunately, is almost entirely confined to 

 the lower animals. Only occasionally does it secure a victim among 

 hostlers, drovers, soldiers, and others whose vocations bring them in 

 contact with diseased horses. Several bacteriologists have succumbed 

 to accidental laboratory infection. 



Glanders was first known to us as a disease of the horse and 

 ass, characterized by the formation of discrete, cleanly cut ulcers 

 upon the mucous membrane of the nose. The ulcers in the nose 

 are formed by the breaking down of inflammatory nodules which 

 can be detected in all stages upon the diseased membranes. Hav- 

 ing once formed, they show no tendency to recover, but slowly 

 spread and persistently discharge a virulent pus. The edges of 

 the ulcers are indurated and elevated, their surfaces often smooth. 

 The disease does not progress to any great extent before the sub- 

 maxillary lymphatic glands begin to enlarge, soften, and ulcerate. 

 The lungs may also become infected by inspiration of the infectious 

 material from the nose and throat, and contain small foci of broncho- 

 pneumonia not unlike tubercles in their early appearance. The 

 animals ultimately die of exhaustion. 



Specific Organism. — In 1882, shortly after the discovery of the 

 tubercle bacillus, Loffler and Schutz discovered in the discharges 

 and tissues of the disease the specific micro-organism, the glanders 

 bacillus {Bacillus mallei). 



Distribution. — The glanders bacillus does not seem to find con- 

 ditions outside the animal body suitable for its growth, and prob- 

 ably lives a purely parasitic existence. 



Morphology. — 'The glanders bacillus is somewhat shorter and 

 distinctly thicker than the tubercle bacillus, and has rounded ends. 

 It measures about 0.25 to 0.4 X 1.5 to 3 ^u, and is slightly bent. 

 Coccoid and branched forms sometimes occur. It usually occurs 

 singly, though upon blood-serum, and especially upon potato, 



* "Deutsche med. Wochenschrift," 1882, 52. 

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