The fact that the blood of leprosy patients and white rats and hamsters infected withmurine leprosy has antibacterial effects, especially tuberculostatic activity supplies an importantproblem on the immunological study between leprosy and tuberculosis. This time the ex-periments were carried out to investigate the tuberculostatic activity.
Materials : Mixed serum 42cc from 8 patients (lepromatous 3, tuberculoid 5) and mixedserum 14cc of 8 white rats, 3 months after subcutaneous inoculation of Hawaiian strain, weight 100-140 g, _??_ 6, _??_ 2.
Method : Systematic separation of protein components of the above sera was carried outby Cohn's alcohol precipitation technique(Method 6).Ultracentrifugation was applied underlow temparature (-5°C) to prevent degeneration of protein precipitates and to increase theamount of them.
To examine the tuberculostatic activity, the fractions obtained by the above method weremixid 25, 33, and 50% permil;in modified Lockemann's liquid medium and Mycobact. tuberculosishominis "Strain Aoyama-B " was cultured at 37°C for 2 weeks.
Results : Fraction II precipitated pH 7.0, ethanol concentration 19%, -5°C, 39.000-43.500g(human leprosy) and 41.100-43.500g (murine leprosy) has the strongest activity, then followsFaction III obtained pH 6.8, ethanol concentration 25%, -5°C, 65.000-70.500 g (humanleprosy) and 66.600-70.500g (murine leprosy). Fraction IV precipitated pH 5.8, ethanolconcentration 40%, -5°C, 102.500-109.200g (human leprosy) and 105.300-109.200g (murineleprosy) has no tuberculostatistic activity.
Moreover, the paper electrophoretic analysis of the isolated fractions indicated in 6% β1, andβ2 globulin and 76% ϒ globulin in human Fraction II, 10% β1, 6% β2 and 62% ϒglobulin in human Fraction III and 41% β and 55% ϒ globulin in murine Fraction II and64% β and 28% ϒ globulin in murine Fraction III. Namely, every fraction is known a congregation of β and ϒ globulins.

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In the biochemical study of murine leprosy, the amount of fatty substances of variousorgans was examined and compared with the control, to investigate the disturbance of meta-bolism of infected rats.
Animals employed in this experiment were five male white rats of 300-350g, and five femaleof 200-250g weight, after 4months of murine leprosy bacillus inoculation and of similarweight and ten intact white rats of both sexes of similar weight were settled as control.
The quantity of free and total cholesterol, cerebroside, Lecithin, Sphingomyelin, Cephalin, free fatty acids, nertral fats in N. ischiadicus, neck nodes, muscles of upper leg, subcutaneousfatty tissue, murine leproma, liver, lung, kidney and spleen was measured and compared withthe normal. The results were shown in Table 2.
Total cholesterol increases in the peripheral tissues and does not change in the visceralorgans. Cerebroside increases in every tissue. Total phosphatide, especially Sphingomyelin, increases in the peripheral tissues and does not change in the viscera. Neural fat d ecreasesin every tissue, while the changesof fatty substances are more remarkable in the peripheraltissues than in the internal organs.
The above results indicate that murine leprosy is a general disease accompanied with thedisturbances of metabolisms in various organs, of which detailed facts should be investigated.

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Up to now, Weigert's resorcinfuchsin is used to stain elastic fibers histopathologically. Difficulty is present in the preparation of this staining solution. Gomori's aldehyde-fuchsin (1950) is a newer dye, derived from Schiff reagent, and applied to differential staining of β cells of Langerhans' islets and hypophysis and elastic fibers. The preparation of this dye is very simple, and finest fibers are easily stained. By counter staining of trichrome, numerous tissue elements are discernible, the details of morphology of cells and stainabilities of protoplasma are rich and clear.
In this paper this excellent staining method is introduced.

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It is a well-known fact that any kind of experimental animals so far tested could not be infected with human leprosy bacilli. Furthermore, every former attempt to sensitize animals to response to leprosy bacilli or their extracts with a definite skin reactivity have also ended without bringing about any successful results.
In this connection, an attempt was made by the present authors to sensitize guinea pigs with leprous nodule tissue or leprosy bacilli isolated from it by the Dharmendra technique. These materials were injected intramuscularly being incorporated into liquid paraffin or into a water in oil emulsion of the Freund type. Despite three repeated trials of the experiment, the object was not attained at last. Some discussion was made concerning the possible cause for this failure.

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As reported in the fourth report of this series of experiment, it was found that guinea pigs can not be sensitized to lepromin with leprosy bacilli, but sensitized to both lepromin and tuberculin by the injection with tubercle bacilli. Therefore, using guinea pigs sensitized with heat-killed tubercle bacilli suspended in paraffin oil, the authors analyzed the relation between size of skin reaction and antigen dilution, comparing both cases of tuberculin and lepromin. The results were summarized as follows.
Both the Mitsuda and Dharmendra antigens showed a good proportional relation between antigen dilution and size of skin reaction, particularly the Dharmendra antigen did sq even in a very limited range of dilution such as 1: 1 to 1:2.25, when reading was made in 24 hours after the antigen injection.
Next, several samples of the Mitsuda and Dharmendra antigens were examined of their relative antigenic potency, taking one of them as an antigen of the temporary standard potency, and expressed in the term of ratio (size of reaction due to test sample/size of reaction caused by the standard). Considerable differences were noticed among the potency of these samples. In addition, the yield of the Dharmendra antigen was found to vary greatly according to leprous nodules used as the starting material.

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