CHAPTER X. 



LEPROSY. 



LEPROSY is a disease of great interest, alike in its clinical 

 and pathological aspects; whilst from the bacteriological 

 point of view also, it presents some striking peculiarities. 

 The invariable association of large numbers of character- 

 istic bacilli with all leprous lesions is a well-established fact, 

 and yet, so far, attempts to cultivate the bacilli outside the 

 body, or to produce the disease experimentally in animals, 

 have been attended with failure. Leprosy, so far as is 

 known, is a disease which is confined to the human subject, 

 but it has a very wide geographical distribution. It occurs 

 in certain parts of Europe Norway, Russia, Greece, etc., 

 but is commonest in Asia, occurring in Syria, Persia, etc. 

 It is prevalent in Africa, being especially found along the 

 coast, in the Pacific Islands, in the warmer parts of North 

 and South America, and also to a small extent in the 

 northern part of North America. In all these various 

 regions the disease presents the same general features, and 

 the study of its pathological and bacteriological characters, 

 wherever such has been carried on, has yielded similar results. 

 Pathological Changes. Leprosy is characteristically a 

 chronic disease, in which there is a great amount of tissue 

 change, with comparatively little necessary impairment of 

 the general health. In other words, the local irritative 

 effects of the bacilli are well marked, often extreme, whilst 

 the toxic phenomena are proportionately at a minimum. 



