404 Leprosy 



experiments of Tashiro * show that the lower animals are 

 entirely insusceptible to infection with the lepra bacillus, 

 and that when they are inoculated the bacilli persistently 

 diminish in numbers and finally disappear. 



Nicollef found it possible to infect monkeys with material 

 rich in lepra bacilli taken from human beings. The lesions 

 appeared only after an incubation period that was in some 

 cases prolonged from twenty-two to ninety-four days. The 

 lesions persisted but a short time and the monkeys recovered 

 in from thirty to one hundred and fifty days. 



Very few instances are recorded in which actual inocula- 

 tion has produced leprosy in man. Arningt was able to 

 experiment upon a condemned criminal, of a family entirely 

 free from the disease, in the Sandwich Islands. Fragments 

 of tissue freshly excised from a lepra nodule were introduced 

 beneath his skin and the man was kept under observation. 

 In the course of some months typical lesions began to 

 develop at the points of inoculation and spread gradually, 

 ending in general leprosy in about five years. 



Sticker is of the opinion that the primary infection in 

 lepra takes place through the nose, supporting his opinion by 

 observations upon 153 accurately studied cases, in which 



1. The nasal lesion is the only one constant in both the 

 nodular and anesthetic forms of the disease. 



2. The nasal lesion is peculiar i. e., characteristic and 

 entirely different from all other lepra lesions. 



3. The clinical symptoms of lepra begin in the nose. 



4. The relapses in the disease always begin with nasal 

 symptoms, such as epistaxis, congestion of the nasal mucous 

 membrane, a sensation of heat, etc. 



5. In incipient cases the lepra bacilli are first found in 

 the nose. 



Lesions. The lepra nodes in general resemble tubercu- 

 lous lesions, but are superficial, affecting the skin and sub- 

 cutaneous tissues. Rarely they may also occur in the 

 organs. Virchow|| has seen a case in which lepra bacilli 

 could be found only in the spleen. 



*"Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk." (Originale), xxxi, No. 7, p. 

 276, March 12, 1902. 



t "Semaine medicale," 1905, No. 10, p. no. 



t "Centralbl. f. Bakt.," etc., vi, p. 201, 1889. 



" Mittheilungen und Verhandlungen der internationalen wissen- 

 schaftlichen Lepra-Konferenz zu Berlin," Oct., 1897, 2, Theil. 



II Ibid. 



