CHAPTER III. GlyANDBRS. is an infectious mycotic disease which, very fortunately, is almost confined to the lower animals. Only occasionally does it secure a victim from hostlers, drovers, soldiers, and bacteriologists, whose frequent association with and experimentation upon animals bring them in frequent contact with those which are diseased. Of all the infectious diseases studied by scientists, none has caused the havoc which glanders has wrought. Several men of prominence have succumbed to accidental in- fection. Glanders was first known to us as a disease of the horse and ass characterized by the occurrence of discrete, clean- ly-cut ulcers upon the mucous membrane of the nose. These ulcers are formed by the breaking down of nodules which can be detected upon the diseased membranes, and show no tendency to recover, but slowly spread and dis- charge a virulent pus. The edges of the ulcers are in- durated and elevated, the surfaces often smooth. The disease does not progress to any great extent before the submaxillary lymphatic glands begin to enlarge. Later on these glands form large lobulated masses, which may soften, open, and become discharging ulcers. The lungs may also become infected by inspiration of the infectious material, and contain small foci not unlike tubercles in appearance. The animals ultimately die of exhaustion. In 1882, shortly after the discovery of the tubercle bacillus, L,6ffler and Schiitz discovered in the discharges and tissues of this disease the specific micro-organism, the glanders bacillus (Bacillus mallei; Fig. 66), which is its cause. 248