LEPROSY. 195 



garded by some as spores, but which are even less likely 

 to be spores than the similar appearances in the tubercle 

 bacillus. 



The organism almost always occurs singly or in irreg- 

 ular groups, filaments being unknown. It is not motile. 



Many experimenters have endeavored to make this 

 bacillus, which is so distinctly present in the nodes of 

 lepra, grow upon artificially-prepared substances, but, in 

 spite of modern methods, improved apparatus, and re- 

 fined media, all, with the exception of Bordoni-Uffredozzi, 

 have met with failure. The observer named was able 

 to grow upon a blood-serum-glycerin mixture a bacillus 

 which partook of the staining peculiarities of the bacillus 

 as it appears in. the tissues, but differed very much in 

 morphology. After numerous generations this bacillus 

 was induced to grow upon ordinary culture-media. It 

 commonly presented a club-like form, which was re- 

 garded by Baumgarten as an involution appearance. 

 Frankel points out that the bacillus of Bordoni is pos- 

 sessed of none of the essential characters of the lepra 

 bacillus except its staining, and does not see in the large, 

 thick organism which he cultivated anything to suggest 

 the lepra bacillus. Absolute confirmation of the specific 

 nature of the lepra bacillus by means of experiments 

 upon animals is wanting. The lepra bacillus not only 

 refuses to allow itself to be cultivated, but also refuses 

 to be successfully transplanted from animal to animal. 

 Only a very few instances are recorded in which actual 

 inoculation has produced leprosy in either men or ani- 

 mals. Arning was able to secure permission to ex- 

 periment upon a condemned criminal in the Sandwich 

 Islands. The man was of a family entirely free from 

 the disease. Arning introduced beneath his skin frag- 

 ments of tissue freshly excised from a lepra nodule, 

 and kept the man under observation. In the course 

 of some months typical lesions began to develop at 

 the points of inoculation and spread gradually, ending 

 in general lepra in the course of about five years. 



