﻿A CONTRIBUTION TO THE BACTERIOLOGY OF LEPROSY 



PRELIMINARY NOTE 



By John A. Johnston 

 (From the Biological Laboratory, Bureau of Science, Manila, P. I.) 



One plate 



Since Hansen (l) in 1872 announced his discovery of the 

 specific cause of this disease, many men in different parts of 

 the world have endeavored to cultivate Bacillus lepras with varied 

 success. Twenty-eight cultivations have been reported and 

 cited, (2) of which 20 were organisms of the diphtheroid type, 

 5 were rods, and 3 were Streptothrix. None of these organ- 

 isms has received a general recognition as the real Bacillus 

 leprse. Only two workers, Kedrowski and Bayon, report any 

 results of animal inoculation with cultures that bear any patho- 

 logical similarity to the lesions of human leprosy. Probably 

 the earliest reported isolation was that of Bordoni-Uffreduzzi 

 in 1888, who succeeded in growing an acid-fast diphtheroid 

 organism. Since this date there has gradually crept into the 

 literature, and now is apparently generally accepted, the term, 

 acid resisting, for an organism which shows any tendency to 

 hold stain against acids. Bacillus leprae, as we find it in the 

 tissues and juices of the body, is distinctly acid fast, although 

 not quite so acid fast as the tubercle bacillus; but to term a 

 bacillus, which, after staining by carbol fuchsin, readily de- 

 colorizes when treated for a few seconds with 20 per cent nitric 

 or 25 per cent sulphuric acid, Bacillus leprse is decidedly un- 

 warranted. Excluding these so-called acid-resisting organisms, 

 the reported cultivations of Bacillus lepras are reduced to 6. Of 

 these organisms, 4 are of the diphtheroid type and 2 are rods. 



How may these discrepancies be explained? We know that 

 in cultures of the tubercle bacillus a filamentous form of growth 

 has frequently been observed. This has also been noted in 

 sputum of tuberculous persons, where hyphaelike filaments are 

 branched and often have swollen ends. In accordance with 

 these findings, some bacteriologists class the tubercle bacillus 

 with the trichomycetes or with the true molds of which the 



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