Abstract
Uchida performed this experiment to ascertain the culture method of rat leprosy bacilli which was reported by Ogawa previously1) .
Three mice of dd-N strain and two mice of C3H strain were sacrificed seven to eleven months after being infected with the Hawaiian strain of rat leprosy bacilli subcutaneously and subcutaneous nodules, lymph-nodes and various organs were isolated with aseptic as the culture specimens which were 30 as a total. Each specimen were pretreated with 1% NaOH solution and inoculated on 1% egg-yolk media (egg-yolk media) as well as on 1% Ogawa media (whole-egg media), which were then incubated at 37°C. Three to five months later, development of macroscopical colonies were seen only on the egg-yolk media in 47.8% of inoculations, namely 11 out of 23 inoculations, while seven inoculations were excluded because of contaminations. The colonies were thin-yellow colored and slightly moist. On Ziel-Neelsen staining, bacilli were like tubercle bacilli but frequently with more elongated appearance. Though investigations of their properties or reproduction tests of these bacilli have not been performed yet, but it is assumed that so far these were quite similar to the acid-fast bacilli which were cultured by Ogawa previously. At present the colonies developed successfully in five successive cultures.
The results descrived above are much the same as the ones obtained by Ogawa. (The experiment was performed by Uchida independently of Ogawa, but since Uchida fell ill, the results were described by Ogawa.)
