In the first report of the studies on eye-diseases of rat leprosy, the author, after a histological investigation on the dominion of the eye of leprous rats spontaneously infected described that its morbid change continuously came from the surrounding part and espe-cially was accompanied by severe cases which had lepra bacilli in the hypoderma and viscera and asserted that the source of infection was chiefly in the inside of the body. Thus the author was greatly interested in giving experimental verification of this fact by certain methods as those in the various experiments of tuberculous eye-diseases and wished to give an experimental proof about the path of infection of eye-diseases in cases of human leprosy which was a vexed question.
1) Through white rats which were treated by a subcutaneous injection of an emulsion rat leproma in the abdominal wall showed considerable morbid changes in the whole body, there were only a few animals which have morbid changes in the dominion of the eye. But some of rats, which demonstrated an elevated ulcer in the inoculated site and have an extremely enfeebled general condition showed morbid changes in the eye-dominion. These changes did not seem to be producted continuously from the surrounding tissues, but it was confirmed by many observation that they were caused by an infection meta-statically through the blood stream.
2) When the hypoderma of brow was selected as an inoculated site, the transition of morbid changes took a long time gradually and continuously toward the eyeball and finally came to encroach in the vicinity of the cornea and the Schlemm's canal. No ulcer in the inoculated part was found in this experiment and the changes of eye-dominion were transmitted chiefly continuously from the brow, but not metastatically through the blood.
3) The author examined whether or not the infection was possible from the outside of the body by means of dropping an emulsion of leproma into the conjunctival sac. In this experiment bacilli of rat leprosy were found in their submaxillary glands, penetrating the conjunctiva like tubercle bacilli in young or slighly grown-up rats, whose nasolacrymal ducts were closed. But simultaneously the bacilli were left very scarcely in the eye-dominion and developed rarely morbid changes like the tubercle bacilli. In this experiment among white matured rats those with closed nasolacrymal ducts were often invaded by the bacilli, but those with opend ducts were not so. This results indicated the difference between this and experiments with tubercle bacilli, and that the infectious power of the bacilli of rat leprosy was not so strong.
According to the experimental result bacilli of rat leprosy could enter through the conjunctiva into the body like tubercle bacilli by means of dropping an emulsion of leproma. But as little morbid changes developed directly in the site of dropping the bacilli, leprous changes of the eye should be considered to be caused by the transmission of the bacilli from other partsnamely infection from the inside, but not from the outside of the body.
4) As eye-diseases of leprous rat might be caused by the secondary infection from the outside, the author tried to test the secondary infection in different time by means of dropping an emulsion of the bacilli in conjunctival sac. But in rats which died relative early no morbid change in the eye was found. This fact seemed to show that the immunity existed in a weak grade as in case of tuberculosis. In rats which survived for a long time the inoculated part in the abdominal wall changed into an ulcer and in various places of the eye morbid changes were perceived. Most of these changes were in deep part of the eye and it seemed to suggest the infection by the blood stream. But some of them were rather superficial, and the author could not distinguish where the changes came from-inside or outside.
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