352 DISCUSSION. 



well as a platinum loop. Get a small flake of mucus from the conjunctival 

 sac and prepare the slide with this, when any organisms present may be 

 seen. 



With regard to the possibility of the Gram-positive organism being 

 identical with the Bacillus xerosis. I was led to think that they were 

 separated entities from the fact that even in old cultures there were no 

 involution forms of a diphtheroid shape. I had always considered Bacillus 

 xerosis as not being in any way pathogenic, but merely adventitious as in 

 the case of spirochaetae. The bacillus in any sense seemed sufficiently 

 constant to be causal, but the possibility of identity with Bacillus xerosis 

 might certainly be considered, as Bacillus xerosis is polymorphic. 



With regard to acute conjunctivitis clearing up in a few days and 

 trachoma being an acute disease, I attempted to bring this fact out in 

 my paper. 



In referring to the question as to whether acute catarrhal conjunc- 

 tivitis can be differentiated from the preliminar}' conjunctivitis of 

 trachoma, by its amenability to treatment, I will state that the point 

 I wished to emphasize was that the condition is the earliest symptom of 

 trachoma and in mild cases the connection between the two might be 

 overlooked, with grave results. 



DISCUSSION ON SIR ALLAN PERRY'S PAPER, "THE PRES- 

 ENT POSITION OF THE LEPER IN VIEW OF THE 

 RESOLUTIONS PASSED AT THE INTERNA- 

 TIONAL CONFERENCE ON LEPROSY 

 AT BERGEN, 1909." 



Major Hoototi. — It seems to me rather early to condemn Professor 

 Deycke's treatment. Not long ago I had an opportunity of seeing a 

 number of lepers at the Matunga Asylum in Bombay who had been 

 injected with nastin for various periods, and there were among them 

 man) - cases of the nodular form of the disease which, to judge from 

 photographs previously taken, and from the statements of the patients 

 themselves, had improved very markedly as regards both the local and 

 general conditions. 



Doctor Atkinson. — This disease is rife in the Philippine Islands, in 

 China and elsewhere in the Orient. . Plague is also rife, and since this 

 is the first time delegates have met in this way, in order that some 

 practical conclusions may be arrived at by this congress, I move that 

 subcommittees be appointed to consider and report to the association 

 before the 15th instant what measures they recommend in connection 

 with the following: Leprosy, plague, and quarantine regulations regard- 



