( 33 )
No. 77, dated Motihari, the 17th March 1877.
From—The Civil Burgeon, Chumparun.
To—The Deputy Surgeon General, Dinapore Circle.
WITH reference to your memorandum No. 123 of 28th December last, forward-
ing Surgeon General's circular No. 184 and No. 3797 of Tinder Secretary to Gov-
ernment of Bengal, I have the honour to submit the following remarks :
(1) On receipt of the above instructions I endeavoured to ascertain
through the police in each thannah the actual number of lepers now existing in this
district, and at the same time to obtain various information as to their social habits,
age, caste, duration of disease, influence of locality, if any, &c., &c.; but I regret to
say that up to present no information has been received, and I find that my
application was altogether mislaid. I have recently again applied for the informa-
tion, and on its receipt will forward a supplementary report on the subject to
your Office.
(2) During the past month I have travelled over a considerable portion
of my district, and in addition have called for reports from the Assistant
Surgeons and Hospital Assistants at the outlying dispensaries on the subject. I
have only seen about ten cases of leprosy in all, and my subordinates are unanimous
in their statements that very few cases exist in their several divisions of the district.
I made special enquiry also among the planters with a like negative result in every
instance.
In Motihari Municipality, for instance, with a population of 8,266 only eight
lepers were found on taking a rough census the other day ; and when it is taken
into consideration that three of these were beggars attracted to sadr station from
different quarters, the percentage is very low. In point of fact, even taking the
proportion of lepers to population from census return of 1872, viz., 305 lepers out
of 1,440,815, òr ·21 per 1,000, the disease cannot be said to be exceptionally severe
in Chumparun ; and from my own observation, and the opinions of my subordinates
and the planters, many of whom have been resident here for years, I cannot
believe there are as many as reported.
(3) Certainly there are no leper villages in the district, or any special
condition that I am aware of, peculiar to the isolated cases that have come under
ray notice.
(4) Tubercular leprosy among the known cases is of very rare occurrence.
I have only seen three or four cases during my residence here. Two varieties of
the nou-tuberculated form are more common, viz., the anæesthetic and the leueo-
pathic ; none are in any way contagious, and there is generally an hereditary
history. This morning while seeing out-patients a chaprassie, just imported from
Mozufferpur, presented himself for treatment with a well marked circular discoloured
anæesthetic patch on forearm just above wrist ; he stated that it came on with numb-
ness, tingling and burning sensation in the part about three months since, and
now the centre has completely lost sensation. In his case there is no hereditary
history ; he is a pale hearty man about 55, and otherwise in sound health. All the
cases I have seen or heard of are middle-aged ; they are of various castes and
classes, but mostly beggars.
In conclusion, I beg to submit that as I only took charge of this district in
February 1876, I was unaware that a report on leprosy had been previously called for
by the Surgeon General, the circular was not placed before me on looking over
the office arrears, and consequently its non-submission on my part was unavoidable.
No. 838, dated Dinapore, the 24th March 1877.
Endorsed by the Deputy Surgeon General, Dinapore Circle.
FORWArDED to the Secretary to the Surgeon General, Indian Medical Depart-
ment, Calcutta, in continuation of this Office memorandum No. 748 of the 20th
instant.
No. 93, dated Baksar, the 3rd March 1877.
From—N. JACKSON, Esq., M. D., Medical Officer, Baksar.
To—The Deputy Surgeon General, Dinapore Circle.
WITH reference to your circular No. 19, datad the 27th of February, received
this morning, I beg to report that I have made every endeavour in my power to
obtain information concerning leprosy.
I