THE LEPROSY BACILLUS 403 



though in stained preparations the same irregularity in 

 staining namely, the occurrence of unstained intervals, 

 the so-called "beading" is met with as in the tubercle 

 bacillus and is assumed by some to be due to the presence 

 of spores. The organism as obtained from the tissues is 

 non-motile, stains readily with the ordinary anilin dyes, 

 and by Gram's method, which brings out the beaded 

 appearance very well, and is markedly acid -fast, thus 

 closely resembling the tubercle bacillus, and the methods 

 used to demonstrate it are the same as for the latter 

 organism. 



The Bacillus leprce is found in enormous numbers, 

 usually crowded together in bundles or masses, in the 

 leprous nodules in the skin (Plate XI, a), liver, spleen, and 

 testicles ; in the affected nerves in the anaesthetic form 

 and even in the ganglion cells of the central nervous 

 system in fact, any viscus may be affected. It may be 

 found in the blood in some 17 per cent, of cases. The 

 exact situation of the leprosy bacilli in the tissues has 

 been a matter of controversy. By some it has been held 

 that they are contained within certain round cells, the 

 so-called leprous cells, and this may be the case, but to 

 an inconsiderable extent. Unna always regarded these 

 leprous cells as really being transverse sections of lym- 

 phatic vessels containing bacillary thrombi, and this 

 seems to be usually the case. Giant-cells are occasionally 

 present in the leprous nodules. One of the most constant 

 and earliest situations in which the B. leprce is found is the 

 nasal and post-nasal mucous membrane. 



Although the organism is present in such enormous 

 numbers and is so readily demonstrable, its cultivation 

 is difficult or impossible. Babes, Bordoni-Uffreduzzi, 

 Czaplewski, are some of those who in the past believe that 

 they have cultivated the leprosy bacillus. Van Houten * 



1 Journ. Path, and Bad., vol. viii, 1903, p. 260. 



262 



