VACCINES 751 



The usual dose for a diagnostic test of mallein in the horse 

 is 1 c.e., but the dose varies with different brands of manufacture, 

 the proper dose of each being stated on the bottle. If several in- 

 jections of mallein are given to a glandered horse, the reaction 

 may disappear, and in this way glandered horses may be fraud- 

 ulently prepared for sale as free from the disease. 



Eecently claim has been made by a reputable veterinarian 

 that glanders may be cured by one or more injections of mallein, 

 and he bases his opinion on the failure of such animals to react 

 a second or third time to the mallein test. The fact above related, 

 that glandered animals become ordinarily insusceptible to the re- 

 peated test, while still uncured and a source of infection, to- 

 gether with the danger of accepting such a statement until fully 

 proved, should make one very cautious to act on such a belief in 

 practice. 



Semner* has, however, found that horses may be protected 

 against infection with glanders by injections, of mallein. Mallein 

 is now given as a routine measure to all the horses and mules of 

 the U. S. Army — quarterly or oftener — as prophylaxis against 

 glanders. The possibilitiy of the curability of glanders by mal- 

 lein is wholly in accord with the effect of tuberculin in stimulat- 

 ing antibodies (opsonins) when it is given subcutaneously to 

 tuberculosis patients. 



By so doing it often aids recovery (see p. 756). 



Mouilleron examined (at one time) four glandered horses 

 after death, following three or four negative tests with mallein, 

 and found no evidence of the disease by microscopy, cultures and 

 inoculation. Nocard has also shown the curability of glanders. 

 The exact status of the matter is as yet undetermined, and until 

 it is we may more safely refuse to accept the general curability 

 ■of glanders by mallein. 



Specific Vaccines. 



Vaccination consists in introducing, within the animal 

 hody, bacteria (or their products) of a disease— with the 

 intention of protecting the animal agamst the disease. The 



sign of glanders, even in the absence of the typical temperature. But. 

 that two tests should always be made with mallein, the second from ten 

 to twenty days after the first. 



* Central 1. f. Bacter., Bd. xvii, Nos. 9 and 10. 



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