PATHOGENIC BACTERIA. 97 



tubercle bacilli, but they are easily stained, requiring but a 

 few minutes with the ordinary watery solutions. They take 

 Gram's stain readily. 



Pathogenesis. Arning has inoculated prisoners with tissue 

 obtained from leprous patients, and produced true leprosy. 



Rabbits which had been infected through the anterior chamber 

 of the eye showed the lepra nodules (containing the lepra 

 bacilli) diffused through various organs. 



In man the skin and peripheral nerves are principally affected, 

 but the lymphatic glands, liver, and spleen can also become the 

 seat of the lepra nodules. The lepra cells which compose these 

 nodules contain the bacilli in large numbers. 



Method of Infection. Not yet determined ; the air, soil, water, 

 and food of leprous districts have been carefully examined with- 

 out result. 



Syphilis Bacillus of Lustgarten (Smegma Bacillus of Alvarey 

 and Tavel). Lustgarten in 1885, through a certain staining 

 process, found peculiar bacilli in syphilitic tissues which he 

 thought had a direct connection with the disease. 



In the same year Alvarey and Tavel and Matterstock found 

 a similar bacillus reacting in the same way to Lustgarten's color 

 method in normal secretions, especially in the smegrna of the 

 prepuce. 



The question yet remains an open one, what relation the 

 syphilis or the smegma bacillus bears to syphilis, and will 

 remain so until the bacillus can be cultivated, which so far has 

 not been accomplished. 



Origin. In the cells of syphilitic tissue, in the secretion of 

 syphilitic ulcers, and in the smegma of the prepuce and vulva. 



Form. Small slender rods similar in appearance to tubercle 

 bacilli, sometimes swelled at the ends and curved S-shaped. 



Colorless oval spaces also present, which Lustgarten calls 

 spores. 



Growth. As before mentioned, they have not yet been culti- 

 vated. 



Staining. Lustgarten's method : 



1. Aniline water gentian violet, 12 to 24 hours, and then 2 

 hours longer in brood oven. 



