No. 124, dated Hyderabad, the 17th February 1876.
From—Major W. TWEEDIE, First Assistant Resident at Hyderabad.
To—The Offg. Secretary to the Government of India.
IN continuation of this Office letter No. 100, dated the 15th
December last, the Officiating Resident has the honour to forward a
further communication received from the Commissioner of the
Hyderabad Assigned Districts, No. 366, dated 1st instant, with
annexure, being a report by the Sanitary Commissioner of the
Province on the subject of leprosy.
2. In paragraph 15 of Surgeon Major Abbott's report it is re-
commended, as will be seen, that at each dispensary three to six huts
should be constructed, and lepers invited to come into them and
receive treatment; whereas the Commissioner, Lieutenant-Colonel
Nembhard, in paragraph 2 of his endorsement forwarding the report
proposes a different arrangement, namely, that pauper lepers should
be treated at the head quarter stations under the eye of the Civil
Surgeon himself.
3. On the above point Sir R.Meade would merely observe that
the practical result of the plan proposed by the Commissioner would
too probably be that only the lepers resident near head quarter sta-
tions would receive treatment at all, while persons similarly afflicted
and residing in outlying districts would be left more or less uncared
for through their apathy or disinclination in the matter of resorting
io a distance in search of medical relief. He would therefore be in-
clined for the present to direct that Surgeon Major Abbott's sugges-
tion should be adopted at every dispensary in the Province, while at
the same time the object of inducing lepers of the remoter districts
to go to head quarter stations to be treated should be kept in view,
and, as far as possible, promoted through the influence of the civil
officers, of local medical officers, and of the Sanitary Commissioner
himself.
4. The question of establishing a leper asylum for the Province
generally is one that may be considered hereafter.
No. 3—25, dated the 5th January 1876.
From—Surgeon Major R. J. ABBOTT, Sanitary Commissioner of the
Hyderabad Assigned Districts.
To—The Commissioner of the Hyderabad Assigned Districts.
AGREEABLY to the instructions contained in Government Resolution No.
1—136 of the 5th March 1875, Home Department, and your No. 972, dated 27th
March 1875, I have the honour to submit the following report on leprosy in the
Hyderabad Assigned Districts.
2. As directed in above resolution I consulted Civil Surgeons on the subject,
but without eliciting any information of value on the questions to be noted herein-
after regarding leprosy.
3. According to the census report of 1867 it appears that there were 1,432
lepers in Berar. But some figures I have recently had an opportunity of consulting
show either that 1,432 lepers were under the mark in 1867, or that leprosy is on
the increase. I am inclined to favour the former view.
4. The census report shews that the lepers were in 1867 distributed in the
three districts as follows :
Akola
Mebkur
Amraoti
Elichpur
Woon
...
• . 1
. ..
...
. . .
...
...
. ..
...
...
».
!..
...
...
. ..
...
...
...
...
...
348
351
278
193
262
In other words that they were pretty equally distributed over the Province. This
is my experience also, as on enquiry I find that in some villages there are no lepers,
while in others—the great minority—that there are one or two, and in some large