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Memorandum No. 6, dated Golegram, the 23rd February 1877,
THE undersigned is directed to acknowledge the receipt of your circular
memorandum No. 33 of 15th January 1877; that he finds out within four miles
square about leprosy in only two neighbouriug villages. Only two cases are seen to
live, one of them inhabitant of Bolegoori, whose disease has arisen from hereditary
cause, and only last two years he is attacked by the disease, and the other is
inhabitant of Coowapat, who was attacked by the disease on his forty-fifth year
of age, and he is quite unable to give his own history, and also stated that he is
unacquainted with the cause of the disease, and in his childhood he lost his father
and mother ; and afterwards I have taken further inquiries about him from his neigh-
bours, who were quite unacquainted with the cause of his disease. This diseased
person now being fifty-five years of age and strongly suffers day by day.
KESHUB CHUNDRA MUKERJEE,
Native Doctor in charge of
Golegram Charitable Dispensary.
To the Civil Surgeon of Midnapur.
Dated Narajole, the 10th March 1877.
From—Babu KEDARNATH PANDAY, Native Doctor.
To—The Civil Surgeon of Midnapur.
IN reply to your circular memorandum No. 33, I beg to state that there few
leprosy cases in these countries. Searching the neighbouring villages, I have found
two leprosy of a father and his son, the cause of which I found is to be heredi-
tary.
Report on the prevalence of Leprosy in the District of Moorshedabad.
LEPROSY exists in an unusual degree in Moorshedabad, which stands fourth in
the list of districts in the Provinces of Bengal, Behar and Orissa, as well as of Assam.
Beerbhum is at the head of the list. Then come Bancoorah and Burdwan, and
Moorshedabad is next.
2. Among a total population of 1,353,626, there were in the year 1872 1,776
lepers, namely, 1,534 males and 242 females, giving a percentage on total popula-
tion of leper males ·2377, leper females ·0342—total·'1312. From inquiry and in-
formation conducted and collected by me it appears that there has been no material
change in the proportion of lepers among the population of the district during the
last five years. For all practical purposes, therefore, we might accept the statistics
collected by Mr. Beverley in 1872 as applicable also to the present time.
3. The male portion of the population of this district, like that of other parts
of India, suffer from leprosy greatly in excess of the female. The normal popula-
tion shows a considerable excess of females—the figures being males 645,335,
females 708,291—and yet the proportion of male lepers to female lepers is 6·33 to 1.
This preponderance of male lepers seems peculiar to India, for, according to
Dr. Carter, such predominance does not exist in Norway, Jamaica and other parts of
the world where leprosy in unusually prevalent.
4. As far as my knowledge of the lepers of this district extends, it appears
that the disease is more common among the Muhammadans than the Hindus. My
opportunities, however, of collecting information from personal observation regard-
ing leprosy has been necessarily limited to a small portion of the district. It
must therefore be understood that the conclusion I have arrived at on this point
is based on those cases only which have come under my personal observation, and
not on the condition of the whole leper population of the district.
5. Leprosy is spread in a greater or lesser degree throughout the district, as
lepers are found within the jurisdiction of every thannah. It exists, however, to a far
greater extent among the people who reside in that portion of the district which