CHAPTER XI. 



LEPROSY. 



LEPROSY is a disease of great interest, alike in its clinical 

 and pathological aspects ; and also from the bacteriological 

 point of view it presents some striking peculiarities. The 

 invariable association of large numbers of characteristic 

 bacilli with all the leprous lesions is a well-established fact, 

 and yet, so far, attempts to cultivate the bacilli outside the 

 body, or to produce the disease experimentally in animals, 

 have been attended with failure. Leprosy, so far as definite 

 knowledge carries us, is a disease which is confined to the 

 human subject, but it has a very wide geographical distri- 

 bution. It occurs in certain parts of Europe Norway, 

 Russia, Greece, etc. It is commonest, however, in Asia, 

 occurring in Syria, Persia, etc., and also has a wide distribu- 

 tion in Africa, being especially found along the coast. It is 

 also found in the Pacific Islands, in the warmer parts of 

 North and South America, and also to a small extent in the 

 northern part of North America. In all these various 

 regions the disease presents the same general features, and 

 the study of its pathological and bacteriological characters, 

 wherever such has been carried on, has revealed similar 

 facts. 



Pathological Changes. Leprosy is characteristically a 

 chronic disease in which there is a great amount of tissue 

 change, with comparatively little necessary impairment of 

 the general health. In other words, the local irritative 



