The “Fish Hypothesis” and the Transmission of Leprosy

Abstract

LEPROSY is a disease that has been known from the earliest times, and in the British Isles was very prevalent in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. At the present time, though unknown in many countries, it is impossible to traverse any large tract in any continent without meeting with cases, Norway, the Mediterranean littoral, India, China, certain of the Pacific islands and various parts of America and Africa being preeminently the seats of the disease. A bacillus having a strong resemblance to the tubercle bacillus is present in enormous numbers in the leprous tissues, and is regarded as the specific virus, though it is non-inoculable into animals, and, with doubtful exceptions, has never been cultivated.