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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    an inevitable resultant, because it would be impos- sible to furnish individual separation for all; and hence, a common Home for the large majority of lepers would be required. With the above remarks, my self-imposed task were over, did it not seem desirable to refer to the past history of leprosy in this part of the province of Kattiawar, for illustration of what already has been attempted. About 27 years ago the then Political Agent addressed to Government, the information that a practice obtained here of lepers drowning themselves in the sea, in or near localities (as Ilathab, Gopnath) mentioned in my notes. Colonel Lang wrote—“ I found that this practice is much more common than I had any idea of, and although the lepers in most cases voluntarily consent to the self-sacrifice, it is much to be feared that cases occasionally occur when they are very strongly urged, if not actually compelled, to submit to it, partly from the trouble and annoyance their relations have in attending on them when the disease is in its last stage, and still more from a superstitious notion which appears very prevalent amongst the lower classes in this province, that any one assisting in burning or burying the corpse of a leper is very liable to get the disease himself.” Parenthetically, it may be remarked that lepers were regarded as just sufferers ; e.g., in a formal engagement against female infanticide passed in 1808 between various Jhareja and Jetwa Chiefs in Kattiawar and the Honorable East India Company, it is urged as evidence of the sin of infanticide, that the Shastras teach punishment for this is equal to that of other great offences, entailing long detention in hell, and afterwards, on second birth, “ the offender will become ‘ Koreea’ (leprous)’’ and be liable to paralytic stroke, &c. The result of Colonel Lang’s representations was the erection in 1850, at Rajkot, the political capital, of an Asylum for lepers, which still exists. Its main- tenance is defrayed out of yearly subscriptions amount- ing to Rs. 5,278, which are paid by the Talookdars of the Province (vide the Preface of this Report), monthly bills being passed by their representative committee at Rajkot: the number of inmates for the last five years was about 50, but for the last two years 37-33 and 31-83 : there are no fixed regulations whatever : each inmate gets a ration of flour wheat, dall, rice, &c., no animal food is allowed, but some extras are given when needed. The institution is superintended by a pensioned Hospital Assistant, and it now serves only as a more or less temporary resting-place of the wandering sick. As an Asylum proper, this institution does not seem to have been intended. Such, then, was the outcome of a sad and somewhat sensational revelation, not apparently the result of deliberate enquiry but incidentally brought to light. After a later and fuller research, I have no such startling facts as this of suicide to reveal, for doubt- less the practice does not now obtain: yet I beg it be remembered that the suffering entailed by disease is always the same, and not even suicide could appear more appalling, than do the misery and hardships which are endured at the present hour, by very many poverty-stricken lepers in Kattiawar.