LEISHMANIA TROPICA 



433 



Laveran (1917) has shown that rats respond in a similar manner, especially if 

 inoculated in the testicle. BouiUiez has also infected rats, and has noted local 

 lesions in these animals. He was working in the district of Lake Chad (Chari Kivcr), 

 and employed Mus concha and another rodent, which was probably Arricanthus 

 niloticus richardi. Another small rodent {Golunda campance) of this district was 

 also infected by him. Laveran had similar results also with Meriones shawi and 

 Myoxus glis. A guinea-pig inoculated in the testicle by Laveran with material 

 from an infected mouse became locally infected, and a gerbil responded in the same 

 manner as mice. Infection in animals has not always been a simple matter, for 

 many observers have failed to produce infections, possibly because the dose of virus 

 had been too small. 



Franchini (1922m.) states that he has infected the plant Euiihorbia segctalis by 

 inoculating it with cultures of L. tropica 



TRANSMISSION. — At the present time it is generally believed that the 

 sand flies of the genus Phlebotomus are responsible for the spread of oriental 

 sore (Fig. 193). These flies 

 were first suggested as possi- 

 ble vectors by Pressat (1905), 

 and Sergent, Ed. and Et. 

 (1905a), while the experi- 

 ments conducted by Sergent, 

 Ed. and Et., Parrot, Donatien, 

 and Beguet (1921) in Algiers, 

 by Aragao (1922) in South 

 America, and Adler and 

 Theodor (1925a) in Palestine, 

 as also those of Laveran 

 and Franchini (1920) in 

 France, lend support to this 

 view without, however, sup- 

 plying the absolute proof. 

 The last-named observers in- 

 oculated dogs in the skin with 

 cultures of the leptomonas of 

 Phlebototnus, and produced lesions resembling oriental sore, in which para- 

 sites were found. Similarly, Sergent and his co-workers (1921) produced 

 a characteristic oriental sore in a man by inoculating crushed-up PJilebo- 

 tomus papatasi, Aragao a similar sore on a dog by inoculating crushed-up 

 Phlebotomus which had previously fed on a sore, and Adler and Theodor a 

 papule containing leishmania on the skin of a man by inoculation of lepto- 

 monas from P. papatasi. It is possible that the leptomonas discovered by 

 the writer (1911) in Phlebotomus of Aleppo was actually Leishmania tropica. 



It was discovered by the Sergents, Lemaire, and Senevet (1914), and 

 later by Chatton and Blanc (19186), and Nicolle, Blanc, and Langeron 

 I. 28 



Fig. 193. — Phlebotomus papatasi ( $ ), the Prob- 

 able Transmitter of Leishmania tropica 

 ( X ca. 13). (After Whittingham AND Rook, 

 1923.) 



