1907.] 



The Mallei n Test. 



425 



greater guarantee of purity if it be ordered fresh from the 

 laboratory. It can always be obtained at short notice. 

 Cloudy mallein should not be employed. The injection 

 should be made into the subcutaneous tissue of the neck, 

 about six inches anterior to the shoulder. During the test 

 the animal should be kept in the stable. 



1. Definite Evidence of Disease. — [a) A reaction is typical, 

 and may for all practical purposes be considered " definite 

 evidence of disease " when the temperature rises from the 

 normal to above 103 0 Fahr. at the sixth, ninth, twelfth, 

 eighteenth, or twenty-first hour, and the rise of temperature is 

 accompanied by a painful local swelling which persists and 

 increases during 48 hours and by symptoms of severe systemic 

 disturbance, such as loss of appetite, stiffness of gait, and 

 hurried breathing. It should be noted, however, that the severe 

 systemic disturbance may very often be absent in horses 

 which are undoubtedly glandered, and one may with small 

 risk of error accept the rise of temperature accompanied 

 by the local swelling as conclusive evidence of glanders. The 

 swelling, however, must persist for 48 hours or more, and to be 

 accepted as definite it should measure five inches or more in 

 diameter. Animals reacting in this manner may be con- 

 sidered glandered without further test. If the swelling is not 

 typical it will probably have disappeared by the twenty- 

 fourth or thirtieth hour. 



(b) Should it be found necessary to test a horse with a 

 temperature slightly above the normal, a rise of temperature 

 with a typical local swelling may for all practical purposes 

 be taken as definite evidence of glanders. 



2. Indications of Disease not amounting to Definite Evidence 

 of Disease.- — (c) If the temperature rises distinctly — two or 

 three degrees or more — starting from the normal, or slightly 

 above the normal, and the local swelling is not typical, the 

 animal should be tested again. It is not advisable to apply 

 the second test to an animal whose temperature is even 

 slightly above its normal. 



{d) When the test is applied to an animal with a normal 

 temperature, it may very occasionally happen that, although 

 the febrile indications are insignificant, the local swelling is 

 typical. Such animals will generally be found to be glandered ; 

 but it is advisable to test them a second time. 



