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No. 92, dated Kishnaghur, the 13th April 1877.
From—C. E. W. BENSLEY, Esq., M. D., Civil Surgeon of Nuddea.
To—The Deputy Surgeon General, Presidency Circle.
I HAVE the honour to submit the following report on leprosy called for in your
circular memorandum No.111, dated the 5th January 1877.
It is but rarely that cases of leprosy come for treatment to our hospitals. My
observations being confined to cases which are ordinarily met with, I am hardly in a
position to state the extent to which the disease prevails in this district ; but from
such observations as I have been able to make, I can safely say that the disease does
not prevail to any very great extent here. There is only one place, viz., Santipur,
where the number of lepers seem to be comparatively greater than in any other part
of the district.
There is also another point which should be noticed here, viz., that the disease
is much more common among Muhammadans than among Hindus. From the cases
that have come under my observation it seems to me that hereditary taint and the
abuse of mercury in venereal diseases are the two main causes of this disease, Of
these two, again, the latter appears to be the more common. Constant association
might be the cause of the disease in some cases, but I am hardly in a position to
give a definite opinion in the point.
The cases which came to the charitable dispensary for treatment were all
treated with gurjun oil. A marked improvement was perceptible at first in a few
of the cases, but the symptoms re-appeared soon after the patients discontinued to
use the medicine. There is one great drawback to the examination of the result of
the treatment, and it is that no patient is patient enough to use the medicine for
any considerable length of time.
No. 286, dated Bauleah, the 3rd April 1877.
From—E. C. BENSLEY, Esq., Civil Surgeon of Rajshahye.
To—The Deputy Surgeon General, Presidency Circle.
IN obedience to the orders of Government, I have the honour to submit a report
on leprosy ; but as the disease exists in a very spare form in this district, giving
me and my subordinates little or no opportunity for studying the disease, I am
afraid the information that I have been able to collect will be of little or no value.
The census report of 1872 shows that in the Rajshahye District there were
altogether 274 lepers. Taking these figures as accurately representing cases of actual
leprosy, the proportion that they would bear to the population would be as 1 to
4,783—a proportion that sinks into insignificance when compared with other dis-
tricts where the proportion ranges from 1 to 5 per 1,000 of the population. Doubt-
less the census figures of lepers are not strictly accurate. In the first place it is a dis-
ease which the people try to keep out of sight as much as possible, those only who
are actually maimed by the disease being brought to notice, and, again, the
returns for females would be defective, because of the zenana system prohibiting
any strict scrutiny. I do not think it has anywhere been shown that males suffer
•more from the disease than females, and yet the census returns show 229 of the
former against only 45 of the latter. These, then, are circumstances that would
tend to understate the facts ; but, on the other hand, there is no question whatever
that a large number of the census cases were cases of a cutaneous affections popularly
known as " white leprosy", which is not leprosy at all. If these, then, were
eliminated, and an allowance made for failure in recording female cases, I imagine
the figures would not vary much from what they at present stand.
Lepers, as a rule, represent to a great degree a floating population. They are
much on the move, generally visiting places where shrines and holy places exist.
In the District of Bhraich, in Oudh, there is a temple and a small pool of water
which are visited yearly by a very large number of lepers. In the season these
lepers, to the number of 30 or 40, may be seen closely packed in the pool with their
heads above water and about the same number or more round the pool ready to jump
in directly vacancies occur ; the water all the time being filthily dirty and highly
offensive. The pool of water is said to be blessed by the Brahmins and to possess
curative properties.
In Rajshahye there are no shrines that are frequented by lepers, the consequence
is that those that are seen here are the usual residents of the place.
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