LEPROSY BACILLUS 335 



bacillus cultivated was acid-fast, and agglutinated with, 

 and was sensitised by, lepers' serum. 



Deycke, 1 by taking fragments of leprosy tissue and 

 incubating for several weeks in physiological salt solution 

 at 37 C., obtained a growth of a semi-acid-fast strepto- 

 thrix, S. kproides. He is uncertain if this is a true growth 

 of the leprosy bacillus. Injected into leprosy patients it 

 seemed to produce a beneficial effect. The acid-fast 

 property resides in a fatty substance which can be extracted 

 with solvents, particularly benzoyl chloride. The fatty 

 substance Deycke terms " nastin " ; it is a neutral fat, 

 the glycerin ester of a fatty acid of high molecular weight. 

 Injected into leprosy patients it sometimes produces 

 marked reaction, sometimes not. In solution in benzoyl 

 chloride it is much more active, and Deycke hopes that it 

 will act as a curative vaccine in leprosy. On the whole, 

 the results obtained with nastin have been disappointing. 

 Twort 2 claimed to have cultivated the B. leprce on a 

 medium consisting of eggs, glycerin, and ground-up 

 tubercle bacilli. Clegg states that the leprosy bacillus 

 will grow in symbiosis with amoebae, and Duval that it 

 grows in 1 per cent, human serum in symbiosis with some 

 bacteria. Kedrowsky and Bayon claim to have grown the 

 organism on a placental-juice agar, and Bayon has obtained 

 complement fixation with his cultures with leper serum. 

 Kedrowsky's organism is a non-acid-fast diphtheroid, 

 Clegg's an acid-fast chromogenic bacillus, Duval's and 

 Bayon's are acid-fast leproid bacilli. 



In 1904 Rost announced that he had obtained cultures 

 of the leprosy bacillus in a chlorine-free medium, but this 

 was not confirmed. In 1909 he again claimed success by 

 cultivating in a medium consisting of the fluid obtained 

 by the steam distillation of rotten fish to which is added 



1 Brit. Med. Journ., 1908, vol. i, p. 802. 



2 Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond., B., 1911. 



