Tri-State medical journal and practitioner . ole question is onewhich has awakened the liveliest interest, and is still being investigated bysome of the most competent authorities living. No special attempt will be made in this place to discuss the matter,that of the therapeusis of recognized cases being perhaps of more impor-tance. Up to within late years nearly every author regarded leprosy as anincurable disease. Various attempts were made in the way of medica-tion, but no satisfactory .or adequate results were obtained. Unna, on theother hand, looks upon the disease as a perfectly curable
Tri-State medical journal and practitioner . ole question is onewhich has awakened the liveliest interest, and is still being investigated bysome of the most competent authorities living. No special attempt will be made in this place to discuss the matter,that of the therapeusis of recognized cases being perhaps of more impor-tance. Up to within late years nearly every author regarded leprosy as anincurable disease. Various attempts were made in the way of medica-tion, but no satisfactory .or adequate results were obtained. Unna, on theother hand, looks upon the disease as a perfectly curable one, and he claimsto have obtained successful results. In view of the results which have beenobtained by nearly all those who have attempted to treat the disease, verylittle encouragement can be held out for an ultimate cure, although im-provement can be safely promised and obtained in a comparatively shorttime. The treatment of Unna, which he has well spoken of, was basedupon the researches and findings of a pathologic and of a therapeutic. Fig. 3. Anesthetic I,eprosy. ( Chinaman.) Leprosy—Oh man n-Dum esn i l. 10a nature. To begin with, the researches first made by Hensen, and after-wards pursued by other investigators, have proven, with as great a cer-tainty as in the case of tuberculosis, that leprosy is a bacillary disease dueto a specific bacillus having peculiarities in its methods of staining, bleach-ing and cultivating. The bacillus resembles very closely that of tubercu-losis in its morphological characteristics, but differs materially from thatorganism in the fact that cultures can be made only with the greatest diffi-culty and upon special media. Furthermore, it is aerobic. It is this lastquality—this greediness for oxygen—which causes it to assume a particularlocality in the tissues. The bacilli hug closely the walls of the arteriolesand of the lymphatic vessels. It is this fact which has led to the conclu-sion that the be*st treatment is such an one as will
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