A NOTE ON GLANDERS. 
119 
used. Glandered matter, inoculated in the skin of these animals, 
produces a very characteristic ulcer in a few days, which may or 
may not be followed by a general infection. If, on the contrary, 
the glandered secretion is injected into the connective tissue, or 
is put on the mesh of a seton, it will be followed* by well de¬ 
veloped symptoms of the disease. The recent studies of LcefHer 
and Sclmetz, in cultivating and inoculating the bacillus of 
glanders, show that the guinea-pig is a convenient and sure 
animal in which the glanders can be reproduced in its acute form 
in about eight days. The rabbit is less adapted, as in it the 
disease often takes a chronic course, or fails to develop. White 
rats are not susceptible; but in field mice the disease shows 
itself promptly. The German discoverers of the bacillus employ 
the following formula for coloring the microbe, in microscopic 
sections, or in glandered matter, dried on the glass cover: 
1st. Color in a concentrated watery solution of methyl bine. 
2d. Wash in very dilute acetic acid. 
3d. Extract excess of water by alcohol. 
4th. Mount in balsam (cedar-oil). 
While Loefflcr and Sclmetz describe the bacillus as being a 
rod, similar to that of tuberculosis, discovered by Koch, Israel 
finds two forms, one “ smaller,” the other—which he considers 
the real one—the same length as that of tuberculosis, but thicker 
and containing larger spores. Dr. Wosnessensky, in the laboratory 
of M. Chauveau, also finds two forms like Israel, but in examin¬ 
ing the same cultures at more advanced periods, he Inis'found 
that the form is not stable, but at times there is a sort of mycelium 
in the form of an L, and moreover a tendenev to the formation 
of spores in a bed of protoplasm. 
It is evident that this study is in its beginning and all that is 
yet proved is, that the cause of glanders is a parasite. One rea¬ 
son for the difference in the form of the bacillus in Germany 
and France, is, probably, that the Germans use the coagulated' 
serum as a medium of cultivation, while “ bouillon ” is more 
generally employed in the French laboratories. The microscope 
should magnify 700 or 800 diameters in order to show the 
microbe clearly. 
