560 VETERINAEY HYGIENE 



The practical bearing of this question on the curability 

 of glanders is very great, and the observation is of the 

 utmost value in military life, as a horse in good condition 

 which reacts to mallein, but with no local lesions may 

 safely be worked during war time without the least risk to 

 its fellows, and may possibly be dead from other trouble 

 long before any local lesions have developed. 



Turning once more to the question of incubation, experi- 

 ments made by giving animals the virus mixed with their 

 food, have been followed by clinical evidence of the disease 

 in from one to three months. But the length of incubation 

 depends upon the method of inoculation ; it is much shorter 

 if the virus finds its way into a cut in the skin, and it is 

 very much shorter in a poor and debilitated animal than in 

 one in good condition ; or in one out of health from sickness 

 or injury than in one not so suffering. 



This fact in the pre-mallein days was constantly taken 

 advantage of as a method of diagnosis ; a liberal dose of 

 aloes brought out the local indications either in the nostril 

 or on the surface of the body. 



It has not been felt necessary in this section to make 

 special reference to farcy, as for our purpose the two 

 diseases are identical. 



Mallein. — In days now happily gone by, one of the very 

 greatest difficulties in getting rid of glanders was the doubt 

 attendant on its diagnosis. No difficulty ever existed with 

 the obviously diseased, but when clearing out a stud we 

 require more than the obvious cases, we want all the latent 

 ones as well, and the difficulty and want of exactitude in 

 determining these in the past are still fresh in our memories. 

 Apart from the difficulty was the question of delay ; for 

 weeks and months we were kept in a state of expectation, 

 doubt and uncertainty. 



Thanks to mallein* the whole of this has changed as 

 completely as if the wand of a magician had been passed 



* It ought to have been called Kalning. In a few years the Russian 

 Veterinary Surgeon who discovered it, and subsequently lost his lite 

 from glanders wUl be forgotten. 



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