( 2 )
The accompanying reports* are all I have been able to collect, and they are
From the Civil Surgeons""} With memorandum
of Chyebassa, Purulia, , No. 1475 of the
Hazavibagh, Sonthal [ 20th May 1876,
Pergunnahs, Bhagal- I from the
De-
pur, Chuprah, Churn- { puty
Surgeon
parun,
Mozufferpur, ι General,
Dina-
Purneah, Buxar, Jalpai- I pore,
guri and Gya,
J
now submitted for the information or His
Honor the Lieutenant-Governor. They
show that the disease is not widely
diffused among the people of Bengal,
that there is no especial proneness to it
in any one locality, that it is pretty
equally divided between Muhammadans
and Hindus, and that probably special conditions of life develop the disease largely
among both classes.
3. Thus among Muhammadans, Julahas, whose occupation is weaving, whose
habits are filthy, and whose manners are dissolute, and who, moreover, live exclu-
sively upon an animal diet, whose quality is a matter of sublime indifference, leprosy
is found to prevail most widely, 368Ό5 per mille ; while among Badiahs, Hindus,
and who live on snakes, mice, frogs, are inattentive to clothing, and thus exposed
to all vicissitudes of weather, the percentage reaches 241 per mille.
4. It would almost follow from this that their conditions of life stood in the
relation of cause and effect to leprosy, yet no such deduction may be drawn when
it is further found that among Rojwars and Telis the proportion respectively is 1*64
and Γ16, though notoriously the former live in much the same manner as the
Badiahs, while the latter are supremely filthy, rarely, if ever, going outside of their
premises.
5. Confining the enquiry for a moment to Hindus, no caste appears to be
specially liable to the disease, since among eight lepers found in the village of
Kadergunge, in the Gya District ; the cases were seen in the Kahar, Gowala, Teli,
Bamwar, Hajjam, Fakir, and Passee.
6. The largest number suffer from the disease between the ages of 40 and 50,
while among 1,382 lepers only two had been the subjects of it under ten, and no
more than 36 under 20 years of age—a circumstance by no means calculated to
strengthen the view of leprosy being primarily and chiefly hereditary. Throughout
these reports there is but one instance of a child being born with decided signs of
the disease.
7. As foul feeding and filthy habits seem to have unquestionable influence in
developing the disease, it is a fair deduction to draw that the reverse conditions
imposed upon those undergoing treatment by gurjun oil have material power in
aiding the action of that remedy, and personally I shall not be much surprised if
hereafter 50 per cent, of the benefit may not be assigned to them by the majority
of professional observers.
8. Dr. Roderick Macleod, of Gya, and Honorary Surgeon William Wilson, of
Manbhum, have, I think, merited commendation for the carefulness with which
they have written their reports.
Office Memorandum No. 1475, dated Dinapore, the 20th May 1876.
IN reply to circular from the Surgeon General's Office No. 26 of the 18th
instant, the undersigned very much regrets that he had quite overlooked the fact
that the reports on leprosy called for in circular No. 12 of 17th April 1875 had
not been submitted. They have been lying in this Office for months past, and are
now forwarded. The undersigned appends hereto a precis of the information con-
tained in each report, and from this it will appear that they do not give much
information regarding the disease, although some of the facts stated (if they are
facts] are interesting.
,T. IRVING, M. D.,
Deputy Surgeon General, Dinapore Circle.
To the Surgeon General, Indian Medical Department, Calcutta,