The etiology of leprosy : a criticism of some current views / by P.S. Abraham.

  • Abraham, P. S. (Phineas Simon), 1847-1921.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The etiology of leprosy : a criticism of some current views / by P.S. Abraham. 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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    Those who oppose this theory may well point out that while numbers of people in Scandinavia, in Africa, and in other countries habitually regale themselves with imperfectly cooked or decomposing fish, and do not get leprosy, numbers of those who do acquire the disease are not aware of ever having eaten anything of the kind. This negative argument is, apparently, at least as good as that largely relied on by the anti-contagionists, who infer that because many persons who come in contact or even live with lepers do not become lepers, therefore the disease cannot be contagious under any circumstances. If, indeed, it must be through one particular article of diet in all parts of the world that the germ of leprosy is introduced into the system, why may we not select something which every one must swallow at some time or other, such as, for instance, bad water ? Filters and other precautionary measures are, at any rate, not particularly fashionable in leper countries. [His Excellency Dr. Tholozan, physician to the Shah of Persia, has just favoured me with some important information bearing upon this question. He states that there is very little leprosy in the lowlands of Persia or on the coasts, and he knows of no cases at Teheran. There is, however, a great deal in the mountains of Kurdistan, where there are no large rivers. The mountain streams yield trout—which the people do not eat. He is sure that the inhabitants never get any kind of fish—not even dried or salted; for there is no means of transport for such articles from the coast. A favourite food of the mountaineers is mutton—often badly preserved in melted fat. On the other hand, at Teheran and other lowland places where leprosy is not rife, salted fish is a staple food.] We really have no direct arguments against a possible dietetic origin for leprosy, i.e., at least, by means of contaminated food; and the view of Dr. Liveing, promulgated in his Gulstonian Lectures so long ago as 1873,1 viz. that the disease may be propagated by the imbibition of the excretions of those affected, much in the same way as typhoid fever or cholera, may yet come to the front and secure further support. The Contagion Theory.—Although clear and distinct instances of the direct communicability of leprosy from person to person 1 Elephantiasis Grajcorum, or True Leprosy, 1873, p. 93.