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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    Holy Land, undergoing terrible privations to get there, and frequently having to wander back through Asia Minor, where they were of course brought into immediate contact with the people of the country (who, we know from the accounts of con- temporary authors, suffered from leprosy.) It is important to bear this in mind, because we have, under these circumstances, the soil prepared in which leprosy, like all other albuminoid diseases, loves to take root. There is good reason, however, to doubt if the filth and want to which these pilgrims were exposed, was in itself sufficient to create leprosy ; for if so, we _ should have heard of similar results following under analogous circumstances in other parts of the world. That leprosy does not spread among the natives of India by contagion, is in itself an hypothesis, but presuming it to be a fact, it may be explained ; for although lepers move about among their countrymen, they are to a great extent isolated from them. Who ever saw a healthy native touch, much less eat, with one affected with leprosy ? In many pai-ts of India the mere fact of admitting a leper into a General Hospital, is sufficient to drive every other person out of it. The wealthy leper may purchase immunity from some of the social evils to which his poorer brethren are exposed, but even he is frequently obliged to leave house and home, and wander as an outcast over the face of the eai-th, visiting shrines and holy places, in expiation for his sins, which he believes have been punished by the infliction of leprosy. Rich and poor lepers, however, though living and moving among their fellow men, are, as a general rule, as isolated from them, as were those condemned to the lazar-houses in the middle ages. There can be no doubt as to the fact that several of the medi- cal officers, whose opinions have been quoted’ as authorities on certain points, do not believe in the contagiousness of leprosy. I cannot, however, do better than refer to Dr. Sutherland’s