750 GEISTEEAL THERAPEUTIC MEASURES 



tuberculosis. Congestion, exudation, edema and thickening re- 

 sult in many subjects of tuberculosis. But it has been shown 

 that the test is not reliable in children under 2 years, and also 

 Arloing and A'alee found it gave uncertain reactions in cattle, 

 rabbits and guinea pigs. 



The ophthalmo-tuberculin test should be especially valuable 

 on account of the ease of its performance and in fever cases. Ee- 

 action may not occur in miliary or advanced cases of tuberculosis 

 where exhaustion of the reactive mechanism has set in. This 

 applies as well to the fever test by injecting tuberculin. A vast 

 amount of work must yet be done on the eye test before its 

 value can be precisely and definitely stated. 



Matlein. — This toxin is prepared in a manner almost pre- 

 cisely similar to that prescribed under tuberculin. The sterilized 

 cultures, from which the dead bodies of the Bacilli mallei have 

 been filtered, and containing their toxins, are employed to test 

 horses and mules for the existence of glanders and farcy. A rise 

 of two degrees F. in an animal of normal temperature (not ex- 

 ceeding 101° F.) within fifteen hours of injection, together with 

 a tender swelling five to ten inches in diameter at the site of in- 

 jection, which is at its height in forty-eight hours, constitute 

 positive proof of glanders. If the fever occurs without the swell- 

 ing, or the swelling without the fever, the animal should be re- 

 tested in a week. In the normal animal a swelling occurs at the 

 site of injection, without rise of temperature, but the swelling is 

 much smaller and has almost disappeared by the end of twenty- 

 four hours, whereas in the glandered animal the swelling persists 

 until the third or fourth day after the injection. The tempera- 

 ture prior to the injection should not be over 102° F., but if it is, 

 the occurrence of a large, persistent swelling at the site of in- 

 jection renders a diagnosis of glanders probable. The perform- 

 ance of the tests is similar to that with the use of tuberculin, in- 

 cluding the preparatory temperature-taking and that following 

 the injection. The injection is made aseptically with a sterile 

 syringe under the skin on the side of the neck, and a temperature 

 of 104° F. occurring within fifteen hours after the injection, to- 

 gether with a large and slowly disappearing swelling, is certain 

 evidence of glanders.* 



*At 8th Internat. Vet. Congress at Budapest, ^190.5, it was resolved 

 that a typical reaction to mallein consisted in a rise of 2° C. (3.4° P.) 

 to a point above 40° C. (104° F.) ; the curve showing 1 or 2 elevations 

 the first day, and rise on the second and even on the third day after. 

 That the characteristic swelling at the site of injection was a positive 



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