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One incidental and unexpected finding during our treatment of five cases of severe lepromatous leprosy fo r twelve months with B 663 (J. R. GEIGY S.A.) alone (BROWNE and HOGERZEIL, 1962 (a) and (b», » appears to shed some light on the controversial question of drug resistance in leprosy.Following our preliminary report in this pilot trial (BROWNE and {JOGERZEIL, 1962 (a» » , clinical progress (marked in some and moderate in others) continued to be satisfactory in all 5 patients for the whole period of twelve months during which B 663 was given alone, and for the three months subsequently, when standard dapsone treatment was given. (BROWNE and HOGERZEIL, 1962 (b» » . Bacteriological improvement continued to be satisfactory, as shown by progressive red uction in the Bacterial I ndex calculated from smears taken every fo rtnight from eight comparable sites (four from skin; two from ear lobes; two from nasal mucosa). The degener ation of the individual M. leprae was also satisfactorily progressive, normal fo rms having almost completely disappeared from all eight sites in all five patients: only five sites showed a few (about 10%) of normal bacilli in the 24th and 25th series of smears (i.e., a total of 80 sites) made towards the close of the trial period on 5th and 19th January, 1962.The features of bacteriological relapse during treatment with B 663

This study was undertaken in London (Rees) and DichpalJi, Tndia (Hogerzeil). Twenty-four hour nose blows before and after a single dose of rifampicin, 30 mg per kg body weight, were sent on ice from Dichpalli to London for inoculation into mouse fo otpads. The fi nal results fro m mice are not yet available, but total counts and morphology of Myco. leprae from the nasal discharges before and after rifampicin suggest that within 4 days of a single dose of rifampicin the infectivity of patients was considerably red uced.