Leprosy : summary of recent work no. 4.

Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Leprosy : summary of recent work no. 4. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cases. A number of the French tropical colonies, particularly Cameroun, are severely infected,the sum total being estimated at 80,000. The Belgian Congo is infected throughout with unknown numbers. Etiology was dealt with at the second sitting, which opened with a paper on the relation of leprosy to humidity by L. RocErs (this Bulle- tin, Vol. 20, p. 821). Then followed an important paper by the Secretary of the Congress, M. E. MARCHOUx, on rat leprosy and its transmission to man, in which he showed that the bacillus is rapidly killed by drying or by a temperature of 60°C., cannot be cultivated, and is as essentially parasitic as the human form, while it can readily be inoculated through a slight abrasion of the skin, or even through epilation ; these observa- tions strongly suggesting a similar mode of infection in human leprosy, through close association with an infective leper. The bacilli in both forms may also remain long latent in lymphatic glands, the organism being anaerobic according to this worker. The vexed question of the cultivation of the lepra bacillus was inconclusively discussed by KEDROWSKY and others, and Professor STANZIALE spoke on his well- known work on inoculation of rabbits’ eyes with leprous material. A. Patprock of Dorpat described branching lepra bacilli containing acid granular bodies, which he considered to be reproductive elements, but MarcHoux pointed to the low resisting power of the organism as opposed to this theory. The third sitting, devoted to the comparative pathology of leprosy, began with an interesting paper by MArcHoux on the progress of the infection in which he showed the close similarity with tuberculosis. Latent leprosy with spontaneous cures is believed not to be rare, and concomitant infections may favour the development of active leprosy, as has also been shown by Muir, whose paper on the nomenclature of leprosy follows. ‘The disease is divided into quiescent, inflammatory and resolving phases of activity applicable to all cases, and into dermal, including nodular and diffuse varieties, and nervous, either of ascending or metastatic distribution. A number of clinical papers follow, the most interesting being J. DARIER’S on tuberculoid lesions closely resembling those cf lupus, containing extremely few bacilli and occasional giant cells and showing alterations in sensibility. [Similar cases have been described by Muir in India, where they are common.| Professor JEANSELME, the Presi- dent, and others, discussed the pigmentary, and M. HIRSCHBERG the bony changes in leprosy, while Professor G. H. MonRAD-KROHN of Christiania dealt with the neurological aspect on the lines of his recent book. K.Muirsupa of Japan describes a reaction at the site of injection into the skin of an emulsion of a fresh leprous tubercle broken up and boiled for two hours in water and diluted to contain 1 gramme in 10 cc. of 0-5 carbolic acid, the dose being 0-05 cc. In 403 lepers a hyperaemic reaction appeared at the end of 48 hours, which disappeared completely in a few days in nodular cases, but in 79 per cent. of macular and nerve cases it increased up to 15 days to form a papular infiltration lasting for over a week. In old persons not associated with lepers and in a healthy attendant (for twenty years) on lepers similar prolonged re- actions were met with, and Mirsupa considers that healthy attendants should be thus inoculated to increase their resistance, as the slight short reactions in nodular lepers are thought to be a sign of absence of any resistance. The same worker discussed the question of the curability of leprosy, pointing out that though there is a tendency for the less resistant macular cases to become nodular and the more resistant