336 A MANUAL OF BACTERIOLOGY 



a little Lemco broth and milk, and Bannerman believes 

 that he is correct. 1 Williams has grown a non-acid-fast 

 streptothrix in ordinary broth, and has also cultivated 

 acid- fast bacilli in a modified Rost medium (substituting 

 distilled water for the fish distillate). The writer has also 

 grown a non- acid- fast streptothrix from a case of leprosy 

 on brain agar containing the juice from disintegrated 

 B. megaterium. As a result of these alleged positive 

 cultural results, it has been surmised that the B. leprce is 

 really a streptothrix, that it is acid- fast only under certain 

 conditions, viz. in the body or in media containing fat, 

 and that under cultivation the streptothrix may break up 

 into non-acid-fast diphtheroid bacilli or into acid-fast 

 leproid bacilli. On the other hand, Fraser and Fletcher 2 

 have made 373 inoculations from 33 non- ulcerating cases 

 of leprosy on a variety of culture media with entirely 

 negative results. More work is therefore required before 

 it can be definitely stated that the leprosy bacillus has 

 been cultivated. 



A certain number of positive results of the inoculation 

 of leprous material into the lower animals have been 

 reported by Ortmann and others. Nicolle 3 has reported 

 the successful inoculation of a macaque monkey, but 

 most of the attempts have ended in failure ; positive 

 results are open to criticism and may be fallacious, for 

 lepers not infrequently suffer from coincident tuberculosis, 

 and the animals therefore may have been infected with 

 tuberculosis. Japanese dancing mice are also stated to be 

 slightly susceptible. The local lesion induced in animals 

 may be simply inflammatory, produced by the leprous 

 material acting as a foreign body, and the bacilli may be 

 diffused without proliferating. Human beings have also 



1 See Sc. Mem. Gov. of India, No. 42, 1911. 



2 Lancet, Sept. 27, 1913. 



3 Comp. Rend. Acad. Sc., 1905. 



