For many ages, leprosy has been symbolic of the maximum of physical affliction, being regarded as the most abhorrent and hopeless of diseases. Even physicians have at times been guilty of a cruel and unscientific attitude toward the disease or, more particularly, toward the social problems that confront the leper as a result of the grotesquely distorted view of the disease held by the public at large, a view doubtless gained from biblical reading. Therefore, to record progress in the therapy of leprosy is especially gratifying. The progress has resulted from the convergence of two lines of clinical research, one wholly empiric, the other resting on an immunologic basis. Both had in the past given some evidence of effectiveness in cases of leprosy.
Chaulmoogra oil (oleum gynocardiae, from the seeds of Gynocardia odorata and several varieties of Hydnocarpus), gurjun oil (gurjun balsam, from Dipterocarpus laevis) and cashew-nut oil (from Anacardium