Modern Indian leprosy : being the report of a tour in Kattiawar, 1876 : with addenda on Norwegian, Cretan and Syrian leprosy.

  • Carter, H. V. (Henry Vandyke), 1831-1897.
Date:
1876
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern Indian leprosy : being the report of a tour in Kattiawar, 1876 : with addenda on Norwegian, Cretan and Syrian leprosy. 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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    ia often most anomalous : for an example of transmission to males only by a female, see case 15 at Kutpar : and to several males in succession, that at Gorkhi : the converse occurs. Leper-brother8.—In further search of elucidation, I have considered the 12 or 13 cases of leper-brothers who find place in the Diary records from Jesur, Wansiali, Kundla, M. Jhinjodra, Bhadada, Jabbal (inland) ; and Kutpar, Methla, Bela, Gorkhi, Trapaj (coast). In a family usually only one individual is a leper, and when brothers are affected they are two only—Gorkhi with five being a rare exception : a brother and sister may be leprous together : leper-sisters I have not here met with. Healthy brothers and sisters are found alongside those affected : and all such limitations are as yet inexplicable. I find T. L. in A. L. in ^ and both, in ~ of my cases (which are oftenest inland) : in 7 couples is strong hereditary taint, in 2 only collateral taint and in 3 none. On comparing together the age, date of 'disease, family taint, &c., no rule has been elicited : even with strong taint in paternal line, the disease may appear at different date or age, but often it came on at early age ; not so with maternal taint: with collateral taint, lepers were older : with no taint, there was yet a correspondence in disease. As regards age of lepers, the mean extremes were 13 4 and 17-7 years for brothers having a strong taint: 17 4 and 415 for those with a mild taint; 21 and 27 years for those with no taint : hence taint seems to induce early disease, and the mean age of all leper-brothers is much earlier than usual, for nearly one-half of them were under 15 years. All the men were affected in the same locality. The individual instances now alluded to are worthy of perusal, but from heredity alone no clear light in their interpretation appears. Summary and suggestions.—The following is a brief summary of my results. 1. It has been shown that leprosy is frequent— sometimes very frequent—in the part of Kattiawar under review; and this, I may add, to an extent previously quite unanticipated. 2. The malady is not, however, uniformly distri- buted over the land, being most prevalent in the populous coast-districts and westward ; and its mode of dissemination is everywhere highly suggestive of communication by human agency. 3. So large a proportion, too, is recent disease that the inference seems inevitable of an actual over- spreading, as it were, of the pest; and besides, the form of disease is often severe. 4. There is absolutely no public provision for the leprous poor and sick, in the flourishing State of Bhao- nagar, or in Palitana and other minor States ; and it may be said correctly that the small and distant leper-asylum at Rajkot, is of no practical utility to this part of Kattiawar. What is done with the leper at home, my journal will sufficiently show : thus, I never once found amongst any class and in any family, an affected individual enjoying the benefit of adequate special accommodation made for him. At best, one side of the low, shallow and open verandah possessed by the superior kind of common houses, is allotted as the resting-place of the leper ; and when no such verandah exists, the only alternative is to permit the sick individual to remain as an ordinary member of the household, living in the common single chamber with the rest. Subsequently, as further discomforts and objections arise, too apparent to the senses to be longer endured, or as the leper family continues to augment and bo more pressed for room, a lean-to of mud and sticks may be erected outside against a gable end, or a stable is chosen for the lodgement of the leper’s rough cot, where he stays sleeping perhaps with cattle, and always most imperfectly protected from the weather. Houseless sick dwell anywhere about the outskirts of a village, or they may be the possessors of a primitive hut in the fields ; such, too, as this last is the whole luxury enjoyed by well-to-do farmers, when they have become a nuisance, as it were, to their friends and relatives, and I have figured two of these huts which were seen by me, as examples of the lodging of men having some property (vide PLATE at the end). Perhaps leper-women are even worse accommodated ; but I forbear to enter into details of this kind, which once to have seen was distressing enough, and to describe is utterly repellant; furthermore, mere words could not render a true picture of the miserable hardships to which I now refer. However well village commu- nities manage their public affairs, no attention is given to the prevention or mitigation of disease. I do not say that lepers are always treated with purposed harshness, or even wholly with neglect; but amoDgst the poorer classes they often meet with both, and husband, wife or child may be deserted and even expelled from home. At best, the sufferer is most inadequately attended to, separate and decent lodging being, as I have said, seldom given ; the needed diet is unattainable, and medical aid is generally out of the question. Sympathy may be felt, but I rarely saw it expressed; and, in short, no better means now offers of elevating the general tone of the people, than the inauguration of a plan for suitably treating their leprous sick—whereby, too, the double end is gained of effecting material as well as moral and physical good— for unquestionably general prosperity dopends largely upon the public health. SUGGESTIONS.—The indulgence of however natu- ral a curiosity, would be but an indifferent excuse for the