( 3 )
From these figures it would appear that Muhammadans suffer from leprosy in
a comparatively high degree, and the same fact appears in the records of other dis-
tricts. Of Hindus it is not the lowest castes or poorest classes that suffer most ;
small traders and writers, or persons of sedentary occupation, produce the greatest
numbers. Then we find Brahmins, the highest caste, suffering in equal proportion
with the menial class consisting chiefly of D hers, who are out-castes,
The agricultural class suffers somewhat less than the menial class, but the
diminution is greater among the cowherds; the artizans are still lower in the
scale, but the Gonds occupy the lowest portion. In respect of the Gonds, the
statistics of the Bhandara District confirm the evidence furnished from the hill
districts.
The people belonging to the aboriginal tribes, who have become
naturalized among the population of the plain country, do not remain exempt from
the disease, but the race is not affected by it to the same extent as the castes of
Hindu orgin.
In all districts in which any considerable numbers of lepers are found, the
number of males affected preponderates very greatly over the number of females.
With regard to the age at which the disease manifests itself, the Bhandara
statistics furnish the following table :
—20
143
20—
196
30—
209
40—
135
50—
50
60
7
Of 60 cases enquired into in the Chanda District, the disease is said to have
appeared in the majority between the ages of 20 and 25. In many cases reported
from several districts, the disease appeared in early childhood, and in not a few it
was congenital. With regard to the causation of the disease very little informa-
tion is added to what is already known.
In all the statements furnished, cases appear in which the disease appeared in
children of leprous parents, or in which one or more near relatives of the leper had
been similarly affected ; and in the reports from many districts the proportion of
cases attributed to hereditary transmission is very large. Of 97 cases enquired into
in Raipur, one or both parents, or some members of the family, had suffered in
59. Of 734 cases in the Bilaspur District it was said to be hereditary in 265, or
36 per cent., and there was an equal proportion of hereditary cases in nearly the
same number of lepers in the Bhandara District. On the other hand, in several
districts the proportion of cases attributable to hereditary taint was small ; of the
160 cases returned from the Saugor District, in only ten had the parents of the
sufferers been lepers, but on the whole the evidence in favour of leprosy being
transmitted from parents to children, and of the taint affecting particular families
greatly preponderates.
In several of the reports cases are given in which leprosy was considered to
have been communicated by persons affected with it to persons who had exhibited
no signs of it previously, and in whom there was no ground for attributing
hereditary taint; marriage and cohabitation with a leper has been in several
instances assigned as the cause of the disease, but the evidence in these cases that the
disease resulted from contact is by no means conclusive.
With regard to the supposed connection between leprosy and syphilis, many
instances are given in this report in which leprosy followed syphilis and mercurial
treatment, and it is not at all unlikely that in individuals in whom the leprous taint
may be latent, the disturbance to health, which syphilis and mercurial treatment
produce, would favour the development of the disease, but there is no good evidence
that the two diseases are allied, or that they are connected in the way of cause
and effects. It would appear that the use of mercury is often resorted to as a
remedy for leprosy. In one or two of the reports the use of bad grain and of
certain kinds of dhal are mentioned as causes of the disease, but no satisfactory
evidence is adduced in support of this notion, and after much enquiry directed to
this point I have failed to discover any grounds for connecting leprosy with any
form of diet, or with deficiency of food.