( 38 )
the abdomen, which he says is characteristic. There is also much enlargement
of the spleen.
The red laterite is spread also over the greater part of Raipura, and the
Northern parts of Lalbagh, Sabhar and Rupgunge, where they are contiguous
to Kapasia, the rest of the district being alluvial generally with a large admixture
of fine white sands. These where the laterite is found are also the highest
parts of the country, which in point of elevation may be classed as follows : High—
Kapasia, Raipura, part of Sabhar and Lalbagh and the Town of Dhaka; Low—
Manikgunge, Srinagar, Nawabgunge, Munshigunge and parts of Sabhar and
Lalbagh. The other places are intermediate in elevation.
Next to Kapasia, Jafurgunge shows the largest number of lepers. Though
of medium height, it is considerably water-logged, i. e., most of the land dries
by evaporation, and not by natural drainage, and it ranks very high in point of
malariousness; Lalbagh and Jafurgunge standing second on the list. Manikgunge
alone heading them in that respect.
It cannot be said, however, that the amount of leprosy in a district or thannah
bears a direct relation to its malariousness. A comparison of the thannahs in
point of malariousness, as judged of by the number of reported deaths from fever
per 10,000 of the population, will show that they arrange themselves in a totally
different order than when they are arranged in order of their relative number of
leprous inhabitants as in the following table :
II.
Order of thannahs in respect of leprosy.
Name.
Harirampur
...
Munshigunge
Naraingunge
Sabhar
...
Raipura
. . .
Rupgunge
Manikgunge
Nawabgunge
Dacca and Lalbagh ...
Srinagar
Jafurgunge
Kapasia
Elevation, soil, drainage, &c.
Medium elevation, alluvial . .
Ditto
ditto
Ditto
ditto
Partly high, laterite
. .
Partly low, alluvial
. .
High laterite
. .
Low, alluvial and covered with
thick jungle.
Low, alluvial
Low, alluvial, water-logged ...
Partly high and lateriate, partly
low, and alluvial.
Low, alluvial, water-logged ...
Medium elevation, alluvial ...
High laterite, great fluctuations
of sub-soil water.
Order of thannahs in respect
of malaria.
0·208
2·828
3·746
4·215
4·448
4·468
4·586
4·782
5·184
5·827
6·120
7·248
Name.
Manikgunge
Dacca and Lalbagh ...
Jafurgunge
Rupgunge
Naraingunge
Harirampur
...
Munshigunge
Sabhar
Kapasia
Nawabgunge
...
Raipura
Srinagar
Number of deaths from fev
85·6
77·
76·7
74·7
70·9
597
58·9
57·6
54·3
42·6
37·2
35·5
* Average of five years.
With regard to water-logging of the soil, I have no trustworthy information
regarding the sub-soil water in any of the thannahs, but Srinagar, Nawabgunge,
Jafurgunge and Manikgurge are very imperfectly drained, the water over large tracts
of country having no natural outlet on the falling of the rivers, and in many parts
of them large bhils remain through the whole dry season.
Whether this water-logging has anything to do with the causation of leprosy
or not, it will be noted that these thannahs all occur in the latter half of Table
No. I., their position in it being 7, 8, 10 and 11, that is, they constitute four of the
six thannahs in which the reported number of lepers is largest. The Collector of
Dacca (from whom I have derived the greater part of the information) states that
in Harirampur, in which there seems to be the smallest number of lepers, the physi-
cal condition of the people is identical with that of the neighbouring thannahs of
Nawabgunge and Srinagar, but it is somewhat better drained. Kapasia, on the
other hand, is a high hilly country, water in the dry weather being only got from
deep wells. This militates against any theory that leprosy can be induced to any
great extent by habitual water-logging of the soil.