BACTERIUM LEPRM 149 



wipe the nose should be burned. Intimate contact, such as 

 sleeping with or kissing lepers, should be avoided, but there 

 is no proof that ordinary relations of human life easily trans- 

 mit the disease. The best diagnosis te made by finding the 

 rods in their peculiar cells, which is best achieved by removing 

 a piece of the skin growths. 



Morphology and General Character. The leprosy bacillus, 

 like the tubercle bacillus, is stained with difficulty, and 

 belongs to what are called the acid-fast bacteria. Methods 

 similar to that described for the tubercle bacillus must be 

 used, but the determination is by no means simple even to 

 the most experienced bacteriologists. The similarity to the 

 tubercle bacillus is further shown by the fact that the tuber- 

 culin skin test is positive in lepers. A poison similar to tuber- 

 culin, called leprin, has been made by extracting leprous 

 tissue. It is only within the last few years that the pure 

 direct cultivation of Bacterium leprce has been successful, 

 and then only upon special media with a very delicate technic. 

 More about the poisons will probably be learned in the near 

 future. The bacillus of leprosy is a straight rod with rounded 

 ends, a trifle smaller than the tubercle bacillus. Its resist- 

 ance to chemicals and heat is probably the same as that 

 organism. It grows only at body temperature. Some 

 attempts have been made to use devitalized leprous tissue 

 and the vaccines from the tubercle bacilli as a remedy. 

 These have met with indifferent success. 



Acid-fast Bacteria. The two organisms of tuberculosis 

 and leprosy are members of the acid-fast group. There are 

 numerous other bacteria that stain and are decolorized 

 with difficulty, but these are the important disease producers. 

 Such an organism, called the Bacterium smegmatis, exists 

 normally in the smegma about the genitals, and is often a 

 source of confusion when examining for tuberculosis of the 

 urogenital apparatus. It does not produce disease, however. 

 It is possible also to exclude it by a special staining method. 

 Other acid-fast bacteria exist in manure, hay, and butter. 



