Report on leprosy / by the Royal College of Physicians, prepared for Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, with an appendix.

  • Royal College of Physicians of London.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on leprosy / by the Royal College of Physicians, prepared for Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies, with an appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    7. What conditions or circumstances of life seem to accelerate or aggravate the disease when it has once manifested itself in an individual ? 8. Does the disease appear often to be hereditary ? Have you known instances where one member only of a family has been affected while all the other members remained free from any trace of it ? 9. Have you reason to believe that leprosy is in any way dependent on, or connected with syphilis, yaws, or any other disease ? ^ 10. Have you met with instances of the disease appearing to be contagious, in the ordinary sense of that term, Le., communicated to healthy persons by direct contact with, or close proximity to, diseased persons ? a. If so, in what stage was the malady in the diseased person ? Were there ulcerations with a discharge? h. Please to describe briefly the case or cases of contagious communication which you have seen yourself. c. Does the disease seem to be transmissible by sexual intercourse ? 11. Are persons affected with leprosy permitted in the colony of to communicate freely with the rest of the community ? or is there any restriction imposed, or segregation enforced, in respect of them ? 12. What public provision is made for the reception and treatment of the leprous poor ? Are they admitted into the general hospitals ? or are there separate infirmaries or asylums provided for them ? Please to describe the structural and sanitary condition of such buildings, and the arrangements made for the medical and hygienic treatment of the sick in them. 13. Can you state the number of leprous persons maintained at the public expense in the Colony of ? 14. Have you reason, from personal knowledge, to believe that the disease has been of late years,—say during the last 15 or 20 years,—on the increase in the Colony of or otherwise ? And if so, please to state what in your opinion may have contributed to its increase or its diminution. 15. What results have you observed from the hygienic, the dietetic, or the medicinal treatment of the disease ? Does leprosy ever undergo a spontaneous cure ? and if so, at what stage of the disease ? Are you aware what proportion of the leprous poor treated at the public expense in the Colony of recover wholly or partially ? 16. What is the estimated population of the Colony of ? and when was the last census taken ? Is there a general and uniform registration of births and deaths, including the causes of death? and if so, how long has such a registration existed ? 17. Can you state the name of the townships or districts in which leprosy prevails most, and give the number of lepers and the population in each of such townships or districts ? Please to add any other observations w’hich you believe may serve to throw light upon the predisponent or exciting causes of the disease, or which may bear on its prevention, mitigation, or cure. Any documents, printed or not, descriptive of the disease, as it has been observed at any time in the Colony of with any reports of post-mortem examinations, or any pictorial illustrations, will be acceptable; also copies of the annual Registration Returns, and of other works bearing on the vital statistics of the Colony. In accordance with the suggestion of the College that the inquiry should be extended to the British possessions in India, and also to various foreign countries, the Duke of Newcastle brought the subject under the notice of Earl Russell, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and of Sir Charles Wood, the Secretary of State for India, with a request that the interrogatories should be forwarded to Her Majesty’s Consuls in the East, and to the authorities in India and its dependencies. The first packet of replies to the interrogatories was received in April 1863, accom- panied with the following letter from Sir Frederic Rogers : Sir, Downing-street, April 14, 1863. I AM directed by the Duke of Newcastle to request that you will submit to the College of Physicians the enclosed returns respecting leprosy which have been received from Governors of Colonies and British Consuls abroad in reply to the interrogatories founded upon your communication of the 9th August last.