Chemotherapy of experimental leishmaniasis in hamsters

Abstract

1. Experiments are reported on the treatment of leishmaniasis in the Chinese hamster, Cricetulus griseus , with different drugs : tryparsamide, sodium and potassium tartrobismuthate, ethyl hydnocarpate, and sodium antimonyl tartrate. 2. A series of experimentally-infected hamsters was treated with each drug, and a parallel series of normal hamsters was similarly injected as controls. No hamster in the infected series was cured, Leishmania donovani being found at autopsy in every case. The average of the spleen-weights was, however, less in each series of treated animals than in untreated infected hamsters. 3. Further work is necessary along these lines before definite conclusions can be drawn, either as to the suitability of C. griseus for the therapeutic experiments, or the value in kala-azar therapy of the drugs examined in this experiment.