360 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Nov 



and is a stump of long- hair that has remained in the scalp- 

 It is club shaped, or like an interrogation point. Its diam- 

 eter becomes less as we g"o towards the root, and its color 

 is lost. These hairs are always a sig-n of an advancing- 

 patch, and are not found in old patches. The medullary 

 (,or pit) canal of these hairs is normal above, altered in the 

 middle, and it is completely wanting- at the root. The 

 root is not bulbous and hollowed for the papilla, but in the 

 form of a turnip. . . . Utricules that are full and 

 closed are found among- the sound hairs. They are filled 

 with joined strata of epidermic cells, and contain in their 

 centers, like a larva in a cocoon, compact clusters of 

 microbes, a pure culture of the smallest bacillus known. 



. . . As it g-rows old it may be one quarter millimeter 

 (^0.01 inch) wide and one-half to one millimeter long-, and 

 comma shaped, or bent. The young- bacilli are a little 

 swollen in the center, and their ends are blunt. . . . 

 Each utricule contains millions of them. . . . This 

 bacillus is reg-arded as the most probable cause of the 

 disease. — Sci. Am. 



Leprosy. — Leprosy furnishes the best opportunity for 

 studying^ a parasite of a bacterial nature. The relation of 

 the cells can be plainly shown, since they do so little dam- 

 ag-e. Reg-arding- the phag-ocyte theory: As Dr. Rosen- 

 stirn says, inert substances can be taken up by the leuco- 

 cytes. It has been said that the bacteria that we stain are 

 dead; that they have a keratin-like envelope capable of 

 dying". In several forms of leprosy they are hard to find, 

 especially in erythematous cases. The discovery of bac- 

 teria floating- free in the blood is not new. It is remarkable 

 that they can float throug-h the kidneys and do no damag-e, 

 but they seem to take up in certain tissues; for instance, 

 the eye-brows, and not the scalp. 



It is the concensus of opinion that a leucocyte cannot 

 pick up a bacterium unless it be dead; it being- a process 

 of dig-estion. The action is such that if the bacterium 

 remained there long- alive, either one or the other must die; 

 they are so antag^onistic to one another. There is no rea- 

 son why the leucocyte cannot take up 3U or 40 bacilli. 



