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test to enable us to say positively that the disease would be transmitted from one
person to another by means of direct inoculation.
On the other hand, there is no doubt that in a certain proportion of cases the
cause of leprosy can be satisfactorily traced to heredity. Making, however, full
allowance for these cases, there still remain a large number of cases which, in the
absence of any other known cause, must be admitted to have engendered sponta-
neously ; and for the origin of these cases we must look to some other causes.
On the whole, I am inclined to the opinion that endemic influences cannot be
altogether absolved of a certain share in the production of leprosy. At all events,
I think the facts I have given in this report sufficiently justify such an opinion,
and suggest full and searching investigation in this direction.
7. It would be beyond the object of this report to include in it any informa-
tion I may have to submit regarding the treatment of leprosy with gurjun oil.
I shall therefore submit a separate brief report on the subject.
S. M. SHIRCORE,
Civil Surgeon, Moorshedabad.
No. 113, dated Nya Dumka, the 16th March 1877.
From—Z. A. AHMED, Esq., M. D., Offg. Civil Surgeon, S. P. Dumka.
To—The Deputy Surgeon General, Dinapore Circle.
WITH reference to your circular memorandum No. 123 of the 29th December
last, forwarding Surgeon General's No. ] 34 of 20th idem, I have the honour to
report that it appears from the census report of 1872 that there are 515 lepers in
this district, or, in other words, ·0408 per cent, of the population are lepers. Out of
this number 314 lepers were returned from Dumka and Jamtarrah Sub-Divisions,
principally from the villages bordering the District of Beerbhum. These are chiefly
Bengali villages, As a rule, the Bengali villages are crammed with houses with
defective drainage and ventilation. The cowdung, house refuses and other sorts
of filth are piled up close to the house in these villages. These are the main
peculiarities of these villages. The sufferers are chiefly poor and low class people
who remain overcrowded in small huts which scarcely protect from the rain and
the inclements of the weather. During my inspections of the villages from which
the largest number of cases were returned, I examined 59 cases in twelve villages,
and found that in 30 cases the disease was propagated by hereditary transmission.
In one case a woman got the disease about two years after her husband, from
which it appears that it was produced by cohabitation. Of the 38 remaining cases
only four were attributed to syphilis and the use of mercury. Fish is scarce in the
villages where leprosy is prevalent, and it cannot be traced that the use of putrid
fish has anything to do in the causation of the disease in the parts of this
district where it is prevalent. The poor people who subsist chiefly on rice, dall
(kalaey, khesari, &c.) and sag suffer most from the disease.
I have seen only very few cases of leprosy among the Sonthals, and I believe
it is not so common among them as among the Bengalis, I mean the low class
Hindus and Mussulmans. This may be probably owing to the difference of food,
mode of life and better hygienic condition of the Sonthal villages.
It will appear from the enclosed statements that the proportion of male lepers
were little more than three times than the females, and the ansesthetic variety of the
disease is more common in the district.
Treatment.—Dr. Dougall's plan of treatment with gurjun oil was not so
successful in my hand (in the few cases I tried) or in any of my subordinates in
this district. The mode of treatment cannot be successfully tried among the
out-door patients of the dispensary, as their attendance is not regular, and they
disappear from the dispensary getting tired of the treatment after a short time.