Abstract
The statistical examination was carried out upon the macroscopical findings of the liver and portal lymph nodes of autopsy material of 300 leprous cases. The results obtained are as follows :
1) In most of lepromatous patients the development of lepromata in liver keeps a proportion to the degree of diseases judged by inspection.
2) The number of macrospically recognizable lepromata in liver has a tendency to be smaller in the patients whose skin lepromata have remarkably improved than in those whose skin lepromata have not yet been resorbed. Lepromata can not be observed by naked eye in the liver of the secondary neural cases.
3) It takes more than five years since the first growth of leproma in the skin that the individual lepromata in the liver become noticeable macroscopically and increase in number.
4) The other combined diseases which could give rise to the proliferation of interstitium were excluded as strictly as possible. The proliferation of the liver interstitium can not be observed in neural and macular cases. The degree of the interstitial proliferation in the little improved lepromatous cases keeps a proportion to the degree of disease and the development of lepromata in the liver, while, in the remarkably improved lepromatous cases, the interstitial proliferation shows a tendency to be relatively conspicuous, though the number of lepromata is small.
5) After the combined diseases which could produce fatty degeneration were eliminated, it has been recognized that this finding is seen frequently in the serious cases. Therefore, there exists fatty degeneration resulting from leprosy.
6) When the cases due to the other diseases are omitted, the capsule of liver is smooth and the typical granulate liver originating in leprosy is scarce.
7) The degree of lepromata in the portal nodes is in proportion to that of diseases and of lepromata in the liver.
8) The lepromatous change of the portal nodes progresses more rapidly in development than that of the liver, and within 5 years from the initial appearance of cutaneous leproma, the change in the portal nodes is more conspicuous than that in the liver. While, in the improving lepromatous leprosy, the absorption of lesion tends to be more prolonged in the potarl nodes than in the liver.
