The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-12-23
A BIG BUSINESS
Continued from First Page,


sent, prevented his reporting sooner
The Executive Officer was author
ICED to publish a notice for the benefit
garding the law on vaccination and
health certificates.
When called on for some report, Dr.
Alvarez presented the following ex-
tract from his new method of bac-
THEOLOGICAL diagnosis of leprosy" for
consideration:
In many cases, leprosy is very diff
cult to diagnose, especially in the early
stages before the disease is developed.
Therefore, method which will enable
to find the bacilli of Hansen in the
tissues when other positive signs are
wanting, will doubtless be welcomed
by the medical profession and particu-
larly by the leprologists.
By following the methods recon-
mended by different authors to de-
monstrate the bacilli of leprosy in It's
sues, it has been found as a rule, that
they can be seen only in tubercles and
augmented patches OF infiltration, while
usually. they cannot be demonstrated
in the non-tubercular form of leprosy
where positive diagnosis without the
bacilli is often impossible.
In order to overcome this difficulty,
| conducted a series of experiments
to find, if possible, not only a reliable
method of diagnosis in obscure cases,
but one that could also be used by
physicians in general who lack the
facilities of a laboratory.
My efforts in this direction have been
successful beyond my expectations.
The method | have adopted is as
| follows:
Immediately after the removal of a
| bit of skin, or other tissue that is to
| be examined, it is washed in normal
saline solution and thoroughly trltu-
rated in small mortar until homo
geneous solution results, adding, from
| time to time, as the trituratiOn goes
on, enough saline solution to keep the
specimen from drying.
When the trituration is completed, a
small quantity may be transferred to
| a thin cover-glass, dried in air. fixed
| over the flame of BunSen burner or
an alcohol lamp, and stained with
| carbol-fuchsin, warming it over the
flame for two or three minutes then
counter-staining with Gabbet's solu-
ton of methylene-blu and sulphuric
acid for 80 seconds, washing again in
water, drying it with blotting or filter
| ing paper, mounting it in Canada bal
sam, and examining with an oil i'm
mersion lens. The bacilli will appear
as purple rods while the rest of the
field will be blue.
If there are very few bacilli in
the specimen examined, they may not
be seen without adding more saline
solution to the triturate and submit
ting it to a centrifugal machine Ply
sicians who do not possess a cent. lfu'
gal machine may place the solution in
a conical glass and allow it to sedi-
ment for "a or 25 hours, then the sedl-
ment may be transferred with a pipet'
tie to a cover-glass, dried in the air
fixed and stained in the manner al
ready described.
If the tissue to be examined ha:
been kept in alcohol it ought to b'
immersed in water to remove the alco
ho] so as to soften it and to facilitate
the trituration
The bacilli may also be found il
doubtful cases by boiling the skin o
tissue before it is submitted to tn
process of trituration.
If no bacilli can be seen, digestiv
ferments may be added and the trltu
, ration placed in an incubator, in con
ical glass and the sediment again ex
, amined.
, The bacilli found in specimens Q
skin where they could not be demon
strated by examining thin section
often differ in their morphology an
staining properties from those found l
;. tubercles and in new lepromas. The
are. as a rule, thicker and sometime
shorter, of irregular outline, and d
not take the stain uniformly, ofte
showing vacuoles They are probabl
dead.
I. Among the many advantages Of tn
. method, the following may be enume
ated
1. Certainly of success in finding II
bacilli, if present: for every partic
of the tissue may be brought undo
the field of observation in layer thll
ner than any section that can be mac
with the best microtOme.
g A diagnosis may be made IN
few minutes. instead of waiting Sc
q eral days for the tissue to harden,
q alcohol or other fluid, before Sc
q tions can be made with the microtom
s. 3. The preparation and staining
cover-glass takes less time and is mo
certain of success than the tedlo
a nrocess of staining and counting sc
. tons.
D 4. By this method physicians w
do not possess a microtome or labor
tory facilities, can make speedy al
positive diagnosis.
President Smith stated that he h
received communication from m
at Waikiki asking that certain SIM
) house opposite his place and viii
had been occupied by lepers. be d
infected. The petition was granted
At 4:45 D. M, the Board went III
Executive session.