426 CHRONIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



in man. The test should be made by an experienced manipu- 

 lator in a properly equipped laboratory. The practitioner 

 usually only collects the serum as in the agglutination test. 

 The results so far obtained from this method are very 

 encouraging (for details see Bacteriology). 



(d) Inoculation of Experimental Animals. — For this pur- 

 pose a young male guinea-pig is chosen which is inocu- 

 lated intraperitoneally with an emulsion in sterile water 

 of nasal or skin ulcer discharge from a suspicious case. 

 One or 2 c.c. are injected into the abdominal cavity of the 

 guinea-pig. If the bacilli of glanders are present, swelling 

 of the scrotum, followed by adhesion of the testicles, will 

 occur in two or three days. Sometimes only a skin abscess 

 at the point of inoculation appears. The danger of general 

 septicemia may be avoided by keeping the material in a 

 refrigerator for a few days before inoculation. Potato 

 cultures should always be made from the lesions in the 

 scrotum. On potato the true glanders bacilli produces yellow 

 colonies resembling honey, while the pseudoglanders bacillus 

 produces white colonies. Positive evidence obtained from 

 this method is, of course, much more valuable than negative. 

 Occasionally the discharge collected, even though it comes 

 from a glandered animal, may not contain glanders bacilli. 

 The agglutination and complement-fixation tests have largely 

 superseded this method. 



Course. — The course in glanders is very varied. Like 

 tuberculosis of the ox its duration, is usually a matter of 

 months or years. The chronic course may be interrupted 

 by acute exacerbations and remissions, until finally the 

 disease assumes a clinical form in which either nasal or skin 

 glanders or both become manifesto The patient either 

 dies or is destroyed. In rare instances death may result 

 from inanition or occur suddenly following pulmonary 

 hemorrhage. The periods of fever which occur during the 

 course of the chronic disease are probably due to the develop- 

 ment -of fresh foci. 



To a certain extent the course depends upon the food and 

 care which is given the patient. Poorly fed, overworked 

 horses more readily succumb to the disease. The nasal 



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