LEPEOSY. 333 



/ 



ence of bacilli in the leprous tubercles, and also in 

 the liver, spleen, testicles, lymph-glands, and other parts. 

 ( Query : How much time had elapsed between the 

 death of the patients and the autopsies.) 



According to Neisser : 



"The bacilli have the form 

 of small, slender rods, with a 

 length about half the diameter 

 of a red blood-corpuscle, and 

 about four times as long as 

 broad. They approach most 

 nearly the bacilli connected 

 with the septicaemia of the 

 mouse, but are not so fine." 

 [According to Koch, they very Fig. 17. 



Closely resemble the bacillus Of Copied from Hansen's paper above 



tuberculosis.] " They are in- 

 visible in uncolored sections, but beautifully seen when 

 tinctured with fuchsin and gentian-violet. Their rela- 

 tive position and distribution vary greatly, according to 

 the part where they are found. They lie either two 

 or three behind one another, apparently forming a long, 

 sometimes curved, thread ; or six or seven lie parallel 

 to one another ; or large numbers are associated in all 

 directions into a confused mass, which is only with diffi- 

 culty resolved into its elements. At a later stage of 

 the leprosy the rods break up into granules ; but 

 whether these are the result of disintegration, or must 

 be regarded as spores, is doubtful. The bacilli were 

 found in greatest quantities in the skin ; next to that, 

 in the testicles ; also in the spleen and liver ; they 

 were not found in the marginal parts of the lymph- 

 canals ; the kidneys were free from them." l 



1 Quoted from Journal of the Royal Micr. Society, Ser. II. Vol. I. 

 Part 2, December, 1881, p. 928. 



