704 



Leprosy 



the skin. Ultimately it sometimes invades the lymphatics and ex- 

 tends to the internal viscera. Death ultimately occurs from ex- 

 haustion, if not from the frequent intercurrent affections, especially 

 pneumonia and tuberculosis, to which the patients seem predisposed. 



Specific Therapy. Carrasquilla's* "leprosy serum" was prepared 

 by injecting the serum separated from blood withdrawn from 

 lepers, into horses, mules, and asses, and, after a number of in- 

 jections, bleeding the animals and separating the serum. There is 

 no reason for thinking that such a product could have therapeutic 

 value. In practice it proved worthless. 



Rostf prepared massive cultures of the lepra bacillus, filtered 



Fig. 285. A case of lepra nodosa treated in the Medico-Chirurgical Hospital of 



Philadelphia. 



them through porcelain, concentrated the nitrate to one-tenth of its 

 volume, and mixed the filtrate with an equal volume of glycerin. 

 The resulting preparation was called leprolin and was supposed to be 

 analogous to tuberculin. With it he treated a number of lepers 

 at the Leper Hospital at Rangoon, Burmah, many of whom greatly 

 improved and some of whom seemed to be cured. Confirmation of 

 the work by others is greatly desired. 

 Sanitation. While not so contagious as tuberculosis, it has 



* "Wiener med. Wochenschrift," No. 41, 1897. 

 t "Brit. Med. Jour.," Feb. n, 1905. 



