172 Insects and Disease 



but the way in which this organism gains an 

 entrance into the system is still unknown. Many 

 theories have been propounded, but none of them 

 has been well established. Within recent years 

 the possibility of insects carrying the germ and in 

 one way or another transmitting it to healthy in- 

 dividuals has been suggested and much discussed. 

 As the leprae bacilli are present in the skin and 

 ulcers of leprous patients, insects sucking the blood 

 or feeding on the sores could not help taking some 

 of them into their body or becoming contaminated. 

 These bacilli have been found at various times in 

 the stomach or intestine of mosquitoes, fleas and 

 bedbugs. So it is believed by some that these and 

 other insects, such as lice and flies, may sometimes 

 transmit the disease. On a previous page we have 

 referred to the possibility of the face-mites acting 

 as disseminators of leprosy. 



Leprosy occurs most commonly among people 

 where little attention is paid to bodily cleanliness. 

 Such people are usually freely infested with various 

 parasites that thrive well in the filth, so if the germs 

 can be transmitted in this way the carriers are 

 there in abundance. 



The fact that the sores usually occur on exposed 

 parts of the body has been pointed to as evidence 

 that inoculation is due to such insects as flies and 



