( 28 )
2. The following statement shows the number of inhabitants in four villages
in different parts of the district and the number of lepers among them. The
information has been obtained through the Tahsildars after considerable delay,
and I canot say how far it may be depended on :
Village.
Haliapur
...
...
Hassunpur
Barousa
...
...
Tirsoolie
Population.
8,026
4,399
1,333
1,262
Number of lepers.
4
1
None.
do.
The Deputy Commissioner, in a communication received from him on the
subject, states that there is no locality where the disease is more prevalent than,
another, and this agrees with my own experience in the matter. It appears to be
pretty equally distributed over the district.
3. The disease appears to affect all castes, but it is much more common
amongst the lower than higher. I have never been able to ascertain any
peculiarity in the circumstances of life of those affected with leprosy satisfactorily
accounting for the disease;
4. The general impression appears to be that the disease is hereditary,
and I am of opinion it is so in many cases. It is difficult to get trustworthy
information on this point, as lepers are reluctant to confess that their disease is a
family one. Of ten lepers, whose history I have inquired into lately, two were
ascertained to have leprous relations,—the father of one and two uncles of the other
had the disease. I have also heard from a trustworthy informant of two families,
not many miles from this station, where several members of each have had the
disease,—in one instance a mother and her son and two brothers, and in the other a
father and his son and a brother.
5. I have met with no evidence to show that leprosy is spread by contagion
like syphilis. In none of the cases that I have inquired into has a leper infected
his wife, and when the children do show the disease, which in my experience is
seldom, it is not till some years after birth.
The people seem to have an idea that the disease may be contracted by close
and constant communication with a leper, but I have known but one doubtful in-
stance where the disease may have been so acquired. It was the case of a boy of
about eight years of age, whose father became affected with leprosy about four years
before. The mother and other two children deserted the father, but the boy remained
with him. In about a year after the boy became leprous, the mother and the other
children remaning till now unaffected. Of course this may have been a case of
hereditary leprosy, or the same causes may have given rise to the disease in the
boy as produced it in the father. The case well illustrates the very great difficulty
there is in forming a decided opinion regarding the origin of the disease.
In the absence of satisfactory evidence of hereditray transmission or contagion
in such a large proportion of cases, I cannot resist the conclusion that the disease
often arises independently of either. What the special circumstances of life are
which favour the development of the disease I cannot say.
Memorandum No. 88, dated Sultanpur, the llth April 1876.
IN reply to his No. 587 of 16th ultimo, begs to say that he has no further
remarks to offer regarding leprosy beyond what he has said in the reports he has
already furnished.
A. CAMERON, M. D.,
Civil Surgeon of Sultanpur.
To the Offg. Sanitary Commissioner of Oudh.
Exd.—R. D'R.