166 THE MORE CHRONIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES 



people would shun him as if he were a maniac with a 

 firearm. If one were to say under similar conditions, 

 "There is a consumptive!" he would be pitied and 

 perhaps not avoided at all. Tuberculosis is vastly 

 more easily transmitted than leprosy. The inhuman 

 treatment accorded to lepers is due to this misappre- 

 hension. 



FIG. 45. Schematic representation of section through a lepra 

 nodule: left side of picture gives appearance under low magnifying 

 power; right side, the appeaYance when highly magnified. In the 

 latter the large lepra cells are diagrammatically indicated. (Abbott.) 



When the bacteria enter the mucous surfaces they 

 are. carried by the lymph or blood to the exposed skin 

 surfaces, chiefly the face and hands. Here they settle 

 in the subcutaneous tissues and nerves, producing a 

 chronic inflammation in which lepra cells are found. 

 These are large round or oval cells, crowded with 

 bacilli, lying irregularly throughout the inflammatory 

 tissues. Leprosy does not form definite tubercles 

 like tuberculosis, but the process is more diffuse; nor 



