Memoir on leprosy in Syria / by John Wortabet.

  • Wortabet, John, 1827-1908.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoir on leprosy in Syria / by John Wortabet. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    believe that the disease of Job was the leprosy, and that all lepers share with him the favoured standing which he had with God; and they are, therefore, called in official documents the “ Leper-Lords (el-gadat el-jathma). . I visited the leper-houses of Damascus m 1868; and, after having examined each case separately, reduced them to tabular lists. Table II was taken this year (1872) for me by a medical friend. Table III was made from the notes of cases which I have taken in dispensary and private practice. (Abstracts of these tables will be found subsequently.) Section III.—Notes and Observations on Leprosy. Sex.—Of the 49 cases recorded in the tables mentioned, 39 were males and 10 females; the proportion thus being nearly one fifth of females to the whole number. It would appear, therefore, that leprosy is much more frequent among males than females, and this accords with the observation of the majority of medical men who have had an opportunity of studying the disease. In the con- clusions drawn by the Committee of the College of Physicians from the evidence submitted to them, it is stated that this difference may arise from the fact that, in most countries where the disease prevails, the women are secluded, and not so apt to fall under the observation of medical men as males.1 The force of this suggestion, however, would apply more to hospitals and leper-houses than to private and dispensary practice; and, in looking at the latter class of cases in my own experience, I find that out of 18 cases, 5 only were females; which gives no less than one fourth. On the other hand, if wTe look at the other tables, and test the matter as to the sex of tainted relatives of lepers, as given by themselves, the difference becomes very considerably diminished; for of the whole number given of the lepers, 16 were females and 19 males. The proportion of males thus continues to appear to be somewhat higher than that of females. On the whole it may be safely stated, I think, that in Syria the disease is more frequent among males than females, and that the difference probably arises from the greater exposure of the former sex to the vicissitudes of temperature, fatigue, and other depressing causes. Aye.—I have not seen or heard of a leper who was attacked earlier than five years of age, though the single case in the tables, where the disease is stated to have begun at the age of five, may mean any period in infancy or childhood. Probably, the product of conception would show the symptoms of the disease early when either of the parents wras a leper at the time of its formation. A large number are attacked about the age of puberty.2 The most 1 Report, p. Ixii. - “ Children of leprous parents arc oithcr born leprous, or will have the disease