SERUM THERAPY 353 



incubated at 38 C. for 6 hours after which it was again heated in a water bath at 

 60 C. for 1 hour and then sloped at 85 C. 



[The ericolinized nasal discharge was sown and the tubes capped and incubated 

 at 38 C. After 24 hours the medium had absorbed a quantity of the ericolin so 

 the material was transferred to other tubes. 



[The bacilli grew and were sub-cultivated in pure culture. In sub-cultures the 

 bacilli were long, thin, beaded rods, well formed and quite acid-fast. Growth appears 

 as a thin colourless film visible to the naked eye in 6 weeks. ] 



[Bayon states that the most favourable media appear to be either placental- 

 extract-glycerin-agar, or horse-serum-nutrose-agar containing 2 per cent, 

 ground-up smegma bacilli (Twort's method). From the nodules of a case of 

 leprosy this observer isolated an organism which " grew rapidly as a white 

 viscid growth on placental-extract-glycerin-agar." Morphologically it assumes 

 one of three forms : (i) a non-acid-fast and non-acid-resisting streptothrix, 

 (ii) a pleomorphic. acid-resisting diphtheroid bacillus and (iii) a definitely 

 acid-fast bacillus indistinguishable from the bacillus in the tissues. 



[The organism appears to be identical with that cultivated from leprous 

 lesions by Kedrowsky so long ago as 1901 and this latter Bayon regards as 

 the true parasite of leprosy for the following reasons : it has been cultivated 

 repeatedly from lepers, it causes leprous lesions in rats and mice, it reacts 

 specifically with the serum of lepers in a way that neither human nor avian 

 tubercle bacilli react and lastly it is not identical with any other known 

 organism. ] 



According to Ch. Nicolle and Weil, primary cultures of the leprosy bacillus 

 can be obtained by sowing non-ulcerated leprous tissue rich in bacilli in 

 considerable amount in the water of condensation of glucose-glycerin-agar 

 tubes to which serum may or may not have been added ; the bacilli appear 

 to grow solely at the expense of the cells of the material sown and cannot be 

 sub-cultivated. Weil has also succeeded in growing cultures by sowing the 

 material in the yolk of the whole egg and on yolk of egg-agar (p. 53, A) ; but 

 here again sub-cultures could not be obtained. 



SECTION III. SERUM THERAPY. 



Carasquilla was the first to attempt the preparation of an antiserum by 

 inoculating large animals with the blood and serum of leper patients. Later, 

 Laverde injected asses, lambs and horses with blood and serum from leprosy 

 patients, with the juice of lepromata and even with the pulp of an epithelioma 

 of the cervix uteri : the serum of the treated animals had a favourable 

 influence on the course of the disease (10-20 c.c. were used for inoculation). 

 Laverde's results were confirmed by Buzzi, Abraham, and Arning ; Hallo- 

 peau, Neisser, and Brieger, however, failed to obtain similarly favourable 

 results with the antiserum. 



Metchnikoff and his pupils showed that the serum prepared by Laverde 

 contained neither leprous products nor toxin, but that the inoculation of 

 serum, blood, or cellular elements of one animal into an animal of another 

 species leads to the formation in the latter of substances (cytotoxins} which 

 have the property of destroying the cells of the animal from which the material 

 for inoculation was taken : and they demonstrated that the improvement 

 noted in the lepers treated with Laverde's serum should be attributed to 

 these cytotoxins. The inconstant results are explicable on the ground of the 

 delicate nature of the cytotoxins, since these are destroyed by transport, the 

 addition of carbolic acid, etc. 



Metchnikoff and Besredka inoculated a goat over a period of 36 days with 34 c.c. 

 of defibrinated blood from a healthy man. The goat's serum acquired powerful 



Z 



