134 APPLIED BACTERIOLOGY 



(red or blue in colour), which become hard. These 

 tubercles consist of granulation tissue, and may ulcerate 

 and cicatrize, producing great deformities. In the 

 ansesthetic form the nerve-stems become the seat of the 

 granulations in the interstitial connective tissue. The 

 spindle-shaped swellings compress and separate the nerve- 

 fibres. Besides the anaesthesia, other evidences of in- 

 terference with nerves, such as vesicular eruptions and 

 alterations in pigmentation and ulceration, frequently 

 occur. The peculiar and characteristic lesions of the 

 disease gave rise to the following descriptive terms : Ele- 

 phantine, leonine, tygria, alopecia ; the meanings of which 

 are sufficiently clear. 



Preventive Measures. — From the earliest times it has been 

 the practice to insist on compulsory isolation or segregation 

 of lepers. This action was, of course, based on the common 

 belief that the disease was spread by contagion. It appears 

 that strict segregation was never systematically carried out 

 in England (Newman), and it is evident that other agencies 

 caused its decline. In Norway also, and in many other 

 leprous localities, segregation is not strictly enforced. 

 Voluntary isolation should be arranged, the sale of articles 

 of food by lepers should be prohibited, leper colonies dis- 

 couraged, leper asylums established, and sanitation per- 

 sistently improved. 



ANTHRAX. 



Discovery and morphology of the organism — Growth on media— Stain- 

 ing of the bacilli — Eesistance of the baoilli and spores to external 

 influences — Pathogenesis — 'Attenuation' of the organisms — Practical 

 disinfection. 



In 1849 Pollender observed in the blood of animals which 

 had died of anthrax certain rod- like bodies. These were 

 afterwards seen by Eoyer and Davaine, 1850, and by 



