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No. 84, dated Pooree, the llth March 1877.
From—G. PrICE, Esq., Offg. Civil Surgeon of Pooree.
To—The Deputy Surgeon General, Presidency Circle.
WITH reference to your circular memorandum No. 111 of the 5th of January
1877, calling for a report on the prevalence, &c., of leprosy in the district, 1 have
the honour to state that, as I took medical charge of the civil station of Pooree
on the 24th of February 1877, I have had no time for personal observation as to
the prevalence, character, &c., of leprosy in this district. The following information
on the subject is all I have been able to obtain from the returns of the three
dispensaries in the district, and from reports furnished on application by the
Native Doctors in charge of them.
During the year 1876 the number of cases of leprosy which came for treat-
ment to the three dispensaries was 95, and of these 50 (six in-door and 44 out-door
patients) were treated at the Pipley Dispensary, situated half-way between Pooree
and Cuttack, 32 (two in-door and 30 out-door patients) at the Khurdah Dispensary,
situated to the extreme West of the district, and thirteen (two in-door and eleven out-
door patients) at the sadr dispensary. It is thus seen that the disease is not
localised in any one part of the district.
Occupation of those affected.—From the records it appears that the cases
occurred amongst people of almost every occupation, from clerks down to beggars,
being rather more common amongst cultivators than any other class.
Sex of those affected.—Of the total number of cases recorded (95), 80 were
males and 15 females ; but this, I am quite sure, does not represent accurately the
proportion affected with the disease according to sex, as the number of males
attending dispensaries is always greater than that of females, no matter what the
disease may be.
Hereditary taint.—Notes, stating whether or not the disease affected any other
members of the families of the different patients, have been recorded in so few cases
that any statistics given on that subject would be only misleading.
Effects of treatment.—One or two cases are said to have been relieved by
gurjun oil ; but as a rule the patients did not persist in the treatment for a suffi-
cient length of time to enable one to form any opinion as to the efficacy of the
remedy.
Of course, besides the 95 cases of leprosy treated, there are numbers of others
in the district who never dream of going to a hospital for treatment ; but still of
the 95 cases the whole were not residents of the district,—about one-fifth consisting
of pilgrims on their way to see Juggernath from all parts of India.
Information of any value as to the different varieties of the disease has not been
obtained. Of the thirteen cases which attended the sadr dispensary five are said
to have been of the anæsthetic variety, and eight of tuberculated variety with ulcers.
No. 201, dated Cuttack, the 21st March 1877.
From—Surgeon W. D. STEWART, Civil Surgeon of Cuttack.
To—The Deputy Surgeon General, Presidency Circle.
WITH reference to your No.111 of 5th January last, I have the honour to
submit the following remarks on leprosy in this district.
2. The disease does not appear to prevail in Orissa to the same extent that it
does in the Upper Provinces. It is confined chiefly to the poorer classes. When it
is seen among the well-to-do, it is generally due to hereditary transmission ; the
evidence of transmission is generally very clear. In those cases where the disease
originates de novo, and no history of heredity is obtainable, the causes are trace-
able to error of nutrition arising from unwholesome food, such as stale or salted
fish, diseased meat, or to living in particularly low or marshy localities as at Pooree
and other places near the sea-coast. In such localities there is an increase also of
elephantoid disease, which is a periodic fever attended with gradually increasing
enlargement generally of the skin of leg and scrotum. Where this disease prevails,
anæsthetic leprosy is commonly seen with more or less of the tubercular variety,
&c. By last census return there were 446 lepers in the District of Cuttack—382
were males and 64 females.