1648 



LEPROSY 



and only on special media. He states that in addition to this 

 bacillus he has at times grown a polymorphic organism, sometimes 

 diphtheroid, sometimes streptothrical, and of varying degrees of acid- 

 fastness. He compares this type of germ to those isolated by Ked- 

 rowsky and Bayon, and is not inclined to give it any importance. 



The bacilli, which, as will be shown later, exist practically all 

 over the body wherever diseased tissue is found, leave it by the 

 nasal secretion, the tears, the salivary secretion, the sputum, the 

 milk, the semen, urethral and vaginal secretions, and by the faeces, 

 and are cast off with the scales of skin or the discharge of disin- 

 tegrating tubercles. Of all these, the secretion of the nose appears 

 to be of great importance, for, as Sticker and van Houten showed, 

 the bacilli are very commonly met with in that situation. The 

 bacilli are reported to have been found in Culex pungens and 

 Clinocoris lectularius by Goodhue, of the Molokai Leper Settlement. 

 Finally, notwithstanding one or two observations, the bacillus has 

 never been found in earth, dust, air, water, or food. 



With regard to inoculations of leprotic tissues and nodules into 

 animals, experiments have been negative in rabbits, guinea-pigs, 

 dogs, cats, bats, pigs, and birds, even though some experiments 

 were thought at the time to be successful. Nicolle produced a 

 hard indolent swelling with a few lepra bacilli by injection of leprous 

 tissue in a Macacus monkey. Marchoux and Bourret have made 

 inoculation experiments in a chimpanzee with partial success. 

 Stanziale has inoculated leprotic material in the cornea of 

 rabbits, inducing certain lesions which he has been able to 

 transmit, to a certain point, from animal to animal. In rats a 

 peculiar skin disease, somewhat resembling leprosy, occurs spon- 

 taneously, as observed by Stephansky, Dean, and Rabinowitsch. 

 This has been investigated by Marchoux and Sorel, who have 

 come to the conclusion that it is generally transmitted by 

 contact, and not by parasitic agencies. They have not succeeded 

 in cultivating the bacillus, while Bayon has cultivated a strepto- 

 thrix very similar to the Kedrowsky strain isolated from human 

 lesions. 



With regard to the experimental inoculation of human beings, 

 the only case cited as successful is Arning's inoculation of a Sand- 

 wich Island criminal in the arm with a leprous tubercle. This 

 man developed a neuritis of the ulnar and median nerves four 

 weeks after the inoculation, a tubercle five months later, the full 

 signs of leprosy two and a half years later, and died a leper six 

 years after the inoculation. It is, however, to be noted that he 

 lived in a leprous country, and that there was leprosy in his family — 

 facts which decrease the importance of the experiment. 



There can, however, be no real doubt that the disease is in some 

 way spread from human being to human being. In support of this 

 there are many well-known facts the case reported by Benson, 

 where an Irishman, having acquired leprosy in the West Indies, 

 returned to Ireland, and died from the effects of the disease in 



