Glanders. 279 



the absence of a good subject the suspected animal is sometimes 

 availed of, scarifications being made in the nose and the morbid 

 product rubbed in freely. The rapid development of ulcerous 

 wounds is characteristic. If, however, the case is chronic, and if 

 a fair measure of immunity has been acquired this test may prove 

 misleading. 



Test by Mallein. Mallein is the sterilized and concentrated 

 toxic product obtained from a pure culture of bacillus mallei in a 

 peptonized glycerine bouillon. When injected hypodermically in 

 a small physiological dose this has no effect on a sound horse, but 

 in one affected with glanders it develops in several hours an ex- 

 tended swelling in the seat of inoculation, hot, tense and painful, 

 which continues to enlarge for 24 to 36 hours and does not sub- 

 side for 4 or 5 days. From the margin of the swelling, swollen 

 lymphatics may often be traced running toward the adjacent 

 lymphatic glands. There is also decided dulness, prostration, in- 

 appetence, staring coat and tremors. The body temperature rises 

 1.5" to 2.5" and upward from the eighth hour after inoculation, 

 attaining its maximum from the tenth to the eighteenth hour and 

 subsiding slowly to the forty-eighth to the sixtieth. 



Mallein must be used under precautions like tuberculin. It 

 must be obtained freshly prepared from a reputable maker. If 

 preserved for months its force may be largely lost. The animal 

 to be tested should be in his customary environment, and not just 

 arrived from a railroad journey nor other cause of excitement. He 

 must not be fevered as any rise of temperature is then equivocal, 

 and a fall of temperature, which sometimes occurs in the febrile 

 system under mallein, is no sure evidence of glanders. Reaction 

 sometimes fails in advanced cases of glanders, but in such a case 

 other symptoms are usually diagnostic so that mallein is superflu- 

 ous and should not be misleading. The greatest care should be 

 taken to prevent infection from the syringe, nozzle, skin, hands, 

 etc. , as other infections may give rise to local swelling and hyper- 

 thermia (see tuberculin test). If a first test lekves the matter in 

 doubt, the animal should be secluded and tested again in a month 

 (some prefer 3 months). 



Test by Agglutination : Serum-test. In this a culture of 

 Bacillus mallei is made in nonglycerined, peptonized bouillon. 

 After 2 or 3 days growth, this is sterilized by heating to 60° C. 

 for two hours. It is then diluted in carbolized, physiological 

 salt solution, to an extent of not less than 1:10, nor more than 



