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No. 133, dated Cbyebassa, the 20th November 1875.
From—The Civil Surgeon, Chyebassa.
To—The Deputy Surgeon General, Dinapore Circle.
WITH reference to circular memorandum No. 12, dated the 17th April 1875,
of the Surgeon General, and enclosure, forwarded with your circular memorandum
No. 11, dated the 21st April 1875, calling for a report on the existence, &c., of
leprosy, I have the honour to submit the following report after a personal enquiry
in some parts of this district. Leprosy exists all over the district, but to a much,
greater extent in.the West and South-West of it. A personal visit to Suranda and
its neighbourhood has shewn that there was not a village visited that had not its
leper; in some there were more than one, and, if the sparse and scanty popula-
tion of the place be considered, the percentage of lepers to population must be
very high, but there exist no data or statistics to shew what this percentage may be.
The special peculiarities of this part of the district are the denseness of the
jungles and the dampness of the soil. The level of this part of the country is
high ; it is much more elevated than many other parts of the district ; in short, it
consists mainly of hills and valleys; but the large number of streams and rivulets,
the heavy fall of dew at night, resembling drizzling rain, and the deuseuess of the
jungles preventing evaporation, keeps the soil in a perpetual state of saturation
all the year round.
The inhabitants of this part of the district are very poor ; their chief diet
is of a vegetable nature, mostly consisting of the produce of the jungles. They
taste animal diet at rare intervals ; and as to fish, with the exception of one or
two months in the year, and even then it is very scarce, it is not procurable for
their indulgence either fresh or putrid.
In the majority of the lepers seen by me hereditary taint could be traced
to either one or both parents or grandparents. In a few no cause could be assigned,
and although the people have a fixed notion of its being highly contagious, I have
found no case to which this cause could be traced.
The form of leprosy in the greatest number was of the anesthetic variety ; a
few were of the mixed kind. I saw only one that was of the purely tubercular,
No. 403, dated Purulia, the 28th July 1875.
From—W. WILSON, Esq., M. D., Civil Surgeon, Manbhum.
To—The Deputy Surgeon General of the Dinapore Circle.
IN compliance with your circular memorandum No. 11, dated 21st April last,
and the correspondence therewith forwarded, and in special reference to the conclud-
ing portion of paragraph 8 of the Resolution of the Home Department, No. 136
(Medical), dated 5th March last, I beg to submit the following information on the
questions therein mooted relative to the prevalency of leprosy in Manbhum :
Question J.— c< The extent to which leprosy exists among the people in each
district ?"
AììSiver 1. (A).—The census of 1872 shewed a population of 995,570 persons
with 543 lepers, or one leper in 1,833, being equal to 54 per 1,000.
(B).— In a male population of 500,936 there were 429 lepers, or one in
1,167, being equal to '85 per 1,000.
(C).—In a female population of 494,634 there were 114 lepers, or one in
4,338, being equal to -23 per 1,000 only.
(D).—It will thus be seen that leprosy exists to a far greater extent
among men and boys than it does among women and girls ; the
proportion of the male to the female population is Γ01, whilst that
between male and female lepers is 3*71.
(Έ).—This district is divided into nineteen police or registering stations,
which vary immensely in area and population, and the number of
lepers in each of which varies from 137 to one. For example,
Rughonathpur Police Thannah, consisting of 394 villages and
containing 87,561 souls, has 137 lepers, or one in 639, being equal to
1-5 per 1,000; whilst in the·Purulia Thannah, which consists of 633
villages, and which contains 150,668 persons, there were only 83
lepers, being one in 1,815, being equal to -55 per 3,000 ; but in the
least leprous registering station·—that of Neenha, which consists of
100 villages, and which has a population of 7,612—there is but a
solitary leper, giving '13 per 1,000 only.