82 BACTERIOLOGICAL DIAGNOSIS. 
GLANDERS. 
Glanders is one of the infective granulomata and is 
closely allied to tuberculosis: it differs, however, in 
running a more rapid course and in the greater ten- 
dency which the specific lesions exhibit to undergo 
suppuration. It is caused by the bacillus mallei, an 
organism which is nearly as long as the tubercle 
bacillus and decidedly thicker. It stains readily with 
all stains and is easily decolorised; it loses its stain 
when treated by Gram’s method, and does not form 
spores. 
The bacteriological diagnosis of the disease is not 
easy, and should be referred to a public laboratory. A 
quantity of the discharge from a suspected case should 
be taken with aseptic precautions and transmitted as 
soon as possible in a test tube or bottle which has been 
sterilised by dry heat or by boiling. Pus had better be 
sent in a pipette. 
Where abscesses are opened cultures taken direct 
from the pus may possibly contain the bacillus in pure 
culture. In this case it may be identified by the 
characters of its growth upon potato. The colonies 
have the colour and appearance of honey at first; they 
grow very rapidly, coalesce, and the potato is soon 
covered with a moist-looking film which afterwards 
becomes brown, the surface of the medium in the 
neighbourhood becoming greenish-brown. If cultures 
from pus grown on potato exhibit these appearances 
and contain a short and thick bacillus which does not 
stain by Gram’s method, the case may be diagnosed 
as being probably one of glanders, even although the 
culture be not a pure one. 
