3
District.
Broach
Kánara ...
...
...
...
Upper Sind Frontier ...
Karáchi ...
...
...
Hyderabad
.
...
Ahmedabad
Thar and Párkar
Shikápur
Population.
326,930
421,840
124,181
478,688
754,624
856,324
203,344
852,986
Number of Pe rsons
affected with
Leprosy.
48
28
6
6
9
5
1
3
Percentage.
•014
•006
•004
•001
•001
•0005
•0004
•0003
3. These statistics leave no doubt as to the extensive prevalence of the
disease in parts of the Bombay Presidency, and the desirability of making a
practical effort to mitigate it. The establishment of Leper Asylums for the
segregation of lepers would appear to be the only practical mode of checking the
progress of the disease and alleviating the sufferings of those infected with it. On
this subject Government cannot do better than quote the following extracts from
the concluding portion of a Report dated November 1873 by Dr. H. Vandyke
Carter on " Leprosy and Leper Asylums in Norway, with References to India,"
which was published in London in 1874 :—
" All theoretical considerations apart respecting the origin, cause, or nature of leprosy,
it is practically found that the spread of the malady may be arrested.
" Having now shown what plans were designed and have been executed in Norway for
checking this scourge, and having also pointed out the good results which already appear
from these wise and benevolent means, it may be fitly suggested that the example thus
set is worthy of being followed wherever occasion demands.
*
*
*
*
" I venture once again to indicate the value of the experience acquired in Norway, for
the illustration which the measures adopted there afford of the direct and indirect value of
suitable Leper Asylums, is one not only clear and decided, but in reality, it is one hardly
known abroad in Europe.
*
*
*
*
" The importance of the subject is commensurate with its scope and character ; the princi-
ples concerned have, I conceive, been sufficiently established in both Norway and India; nay
further there are practical measures of ascertained value which require but slight modifica-
tion to become available for India. I therefore propose :—
*
*
*
*
" (3.) That without delay a permanent Leper Hospital bo established in or near to
those localities where disease abounds.
" (4.) That provision be made for the erection of Leper Asylums in places already well
known to be infested with lepers. It must, however, be expressly understood
that no very temporary or merely experimental plans will be of avail. One
can hardly hope for more favourable results in India than in Norway ; but
half measures would be fatal to this degree of success."
And in his " Report of a Tour in Káthiáwár, 1876," published at Bombay at the
expense of the Chiefs of Káthiáwár in 1876, the same eminent authority on the
subject of leprosy writes thus with regard to the desirability and mode of
alleviating the sufferings of lepers :—
"And I repeat, that nothing has been attempted for alleviating the public, family and
individual sufferings which are entailed by passive endurance of the leprous pest. An evil
of this kind, when once recognized, cannot be allowed to fester unchecked, without there
ensuing the greatest moral as well as physical social degradation. This I take to be a political
as well as a professional dictum, the truth of which is indisputable. Experience in India, as in
Europe, does not justify the inference that there is an essential relationship between want and
this plague ; for leprosy occurs in healthy people and in well-to-do families. Formerly, too,
it spread in Europe at times of general movement, if not of material progress ; and, so far as
I can see, its prevention is concerned with individual treatment rather than with general or
public changes.
" The plan I now allude to consists in the complete isolation of the leper ; and, if pos-
sible, his removal to a suitable asylum.
" The principles upon which asyluma for lepers have been successfully conducted are
mentioned in my /Report to the Secretary of State for.India on Leprosy in Norway, &c,
London, 1874' ; and in that document will be found many useful details. With reference