A LEPROUS RAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13481, 7 May 1907, Page 6

A LEPROUS RAT.

DISCOVERED IN MELBOURNE.

A BACTERIOLOGIST'S VIEWS.

The measures taken by the health authorities in Melbourne for the destruction of rats are likely to be considerably increased by the fact that on examination of the carcase of a diseased rodent recently Dr. Bull, demonstrator of bacteriology at the- Melbourne University, found unmistakable evidence of leprosy. Thousands of rats are destroyed in and around Melbourne every year, fire being usually employed to get rid of the. carcases, but. when disease is apparent it is customary to send them to the laboratory at the University for examination. The specimen in question has been' placed in spirits, and forms an interesting exhibit. Dr. Bull lias no knowledge of any leprous rat having been previously discovered in Australia, i and remembers only! two instances of similar discoveries in any other part of the world. One was during an outbreak of plague in Odessa, when Dr.' /Stepowsky, who at first thought the disease to be plague, found on examination that it was leprosy. ;-. In 1905, two' years after the case just referred to, the disease was again found in a rat that had been killed. : The importance of the discovery is heightened by, the fact ; that neither in Melbourne nor in Charters Towers is; leprosy endemic, and yet two cases of leprosy have just .been :unearthed at the latter place. " When asked last evening if there, was any danger to human life apprehended from the' discovery, Dr. Bull said:"l would' not like to say there is no danger, but at present we have no evidence that there is such a danger. " This is a rare case, and the disease is not likely to be very prevalent amongst rats in the metropolitan area. The* bacilli is very similar to that found in human beings— fact, you cannot distinguish one from the other; but as far as I know the bacilli of human leprosy cannot be communicated to animals. Though I have the bacilli of human leprosy, I-have not tried the experiment, but others have, and they have not been successful in conveying the disease to : animals by means of inoculation. I have experimented on guinea pigs and rabbits with the'object of ascertaining if the bacilli from the rat would develop 'leprosy in those animals, but the experiments have been resultless. "There is, however; a possibility that, like bovine tuberculosis, the disease may; be communicable, to human beings from rats suffering with it. The only way to ascertain that would be by actual experiment, and, of course, such a method is out of the question. It would be very interesting to find out whether the disease prevails amongst rats where human leprosy is endemic, because if such a fact -.were once established we would have good reason to suppose that rats are the cause.- ~1; don't know that a rat similarly diseased has ever been found in an endemic .area, but the mere discovery of such a disease is in the circumstances sufficient to show the necessity of every possible means being adopted for the destruction of rodents."