Morphological and quantitative study of the Halberg method for staining the leprosy bacillus

Abstract

Halberg's staining method for tuberculous bacillus was applied to the staining of leprosy bacillus. The author describes several morphological aspects observed on leprosy bacilli stained by such method, and discusses its value on the basis of a quantitative comparison with Gabbet's method. This comparative study was made by using both methods to stain duplicate smears of material from cutaneous lesions of 32 patients with lepromatous leprosy. The author analyses a number of causes apt to decidedly affect conclusions drawn from such study, and discusses the means to minimize them. As far as it is reasonable to conclude from the results presented, the method of Halberg proved less helpful then Gabbet's, there being no justification for the use of the first as the method of choice in the diagnosis of leprosy. Notwithstanding, the results of the quantitative comparison demonstrated the method of Halberg a very eficient method for staining leprosy bacilli, being of special vallue for this concept the results obtained with it in the research of leprosy bacilli in leprous material of low bacilli content. Moreover, is the author's impression that Halberg's method should be considered as a new resource in the morphological studies of the leprosy bacillus, particularly worthy of being tried in the investigation on the less well known forms of the germ.