RAT LEPROSY 625 



relationship between the leprosy bacillus and the Bacillus tuberculosis, 

 are the investigations upon the action of tuberculin upon leprous 

 patients. When tuberculin is administered to lepers, a febrile reac- 

 tion occurs usually twenty-four or more hours after the adminis- 

 tration. The fever differs from that produced by the use of the 

 same substance in tuberculous patients in that it is of late occurrence 

 and lasts considerably longer. At the same time, there may be 

 marked redness and tenderness of the nodules. In isolated cases, 

 Babes 19 has noticed alarmingly high and prolonged fever together 

 with systemic symptoms such as nausea, headache, and even uncon- 

 sciousness, following the injection of tuberculin. The same writer 

 claims to have extracted from the organs of lepers, which contained 

 enormous numbers of bacilli, substances which showed an action similar 

 to that of the tuberculin. 



Until recently all therapeutic methods applied to leprosy have been 

 discouraging. In 1914 Heiser reported on the treatment of 12 cases 

 by intramuscular injections of Chaulmoogra oil. McDonald and Dean, 

 Sir Leonard Rogers and others have used this oil and its derivatives 

 since then with encouraging results. McDonald and Dean report 186 

 cases treated from 1918 to 1919, 25 of whom were discharged as " clin- 

 ically and bacteriologically " free during this period. They used 

 intramuscular injections of ethyl esters of the fatty acids of the Chaul- 

 moogra oil. This form of treatment is being further studied by them 

 and many others. For details we refer the reader to their communica- 

 tion in the U. S. Public Health Reports, August 20, 1920, Vol. 35. 

 No. 34, 



RAT LEPROSY 



Stefansky 20 first observed this disease among rats in Odessa, and 

 since then it has been observed in Berlin (Rabinovitsch 21 ), in London 

 (Dean 22 ), in New South Wales (Tidswell 23 ) , and in San Francisco 

 (Wherry 24 and McCoy 25 ) . The disease occurs spontaneously among 



19 Babes, in Kolle und Wasscrmann, "Handbuch," etc., Erst. Ergiinz. Bd., 1907. 



20 Stefansky, Centralbl. f. Bakt., xxxiii, 481. 



21 EabinovUsch, Centralbl. f . Bakt., xxxiii, 577. 



22 Dean, Centralbl. f. Bakt., xxxiv, 222; Jour. Hyg., xcix. 



23 TiUswell, cited by Brinkerhoff in "The Eat and Its Relation to Publie 

 Health/' Treas. Dept., Wash., 1910. 



24 Wherry, J. A. M. A., June 6, 1908. 



25 McCoy, Rep. U. S. P. H. and M. H. S., xxiii, 981. 



