Leprosy / by C. Macnamara.

  • Macnamara, Nottidge Charles, 1832-1918.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Leprosy / by C. Macnamara. 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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    this conclusioiij it must be ascertained if the patient^s grandfather or even his great-grandfatherj was affected with the disease. Another argument put forward as a proof of the non-hereditary nature of leprosy is, that we sometimes find only one member of a family suffering from it j it would be necessary, however, in any such case to consider the probabilities of the relations of the diseased person subsequently becoming leprous, and all chance of the patients having been inoculated from a leprous sore must have been carefully excluded, before we can venture to give an oj)inion as to its origin. These are the pnncipal arguments insisted on by the dis- believers in the hereditary nature of leprosy; but in opposition to them stands the formidable array of facts above noticed, which may be briefly summed up as follows. From the report before me, I find that eighty per cent, of tlie Civil Surgeons in this Presidency agree in thinking that leprosy is hereditary. The prevailing belief of both ancient and modern authors confirms this opinion. The natives of India believe the disease to be hereditary; and a man and his wife are separated usually by mutual consent when the complaint has become fully developed, because they are aware their children will, under these circumstances, inherit the leprous taint. From numerous statements scattered throughout this report, it appears that the disease is at the present day mainly pro- pagated by an heredetary taint from parent to child. The case before quoted of the Chittagong’ colony is much to the point; these Portuguese being placed xinder percisely similar cir- cumstances, both as regards climate, sanitation, and diet, as their native neighbours; the only difference between them is that the latter intermarry, but the Portuguese keep to them- selves, and the leprous taint is thus excluded from their colony; Avere they to marr}’ natives, no doubt the seeds of the disease