Report, by Dr. Heidenstam ... on leprosy in Cyprus / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, March 1890.

  • Heidenstam, F. Charles.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report, by Dr. Heidenstam ... on leprosy in Cyprus / presented to both Houses of Parliament by command of Her Majesty, March 1890. 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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    G As regards filth jind mal-liygienic coiiditioiis, neither c.ui they be considered as l)aving any direct connexion wiUi the origin of leprosy. As in this Island, where both of those conditions are met with in a most paramonnt degree among the lower class of inhabi- ants, it would be difficult to explain how a village close to one affected with leprosy, and under the same dirty and had sanitaiy conditions, is free from the disease, as also how inexplicable is the fact that the disease is not met with in villages which are exclusively Turkish, although the sanitary conditions and the poverty are just the same as in the Christian villages. Neverthe- less, although those conditions do not solely constitute a direct cause of leprosy, they have an indubitable influence in harbouring and propagating the infectious virus and in promoting its action and progress. Dr. Barry, the late Sanitary Commissioner for Cyprus, in his annual report for 1880, stated that the popular cause assigned for leprosy was the eaiing of putrid salt pork. The use of salt and putrid food as a cause of leprosy has also been advocated by others. I fail, however, to find how this theory can be supported in this Island where the majority of villages infected do not partake of this sort of food ; and further, many lepers and families of lepers I have met, among whom were some Moslems, had never tasted pork in any form ; and, on the other hand, villages, the inhabitants of which lived almost exclusively on this putrid salt pork, have been free from the disease. I consider, therefore, that putrid salt food, like all luiwholesome nourishment tending to decrease constitutional vitality, can only, as malaria and mal-hygiene, be regarded as a helping factor) but not as a direct cause. It has generally been believed and urged that leprosy in Cyprus, as elsewhere, was inherent in the individual, and the lepers here when questioned as to the direct cause of their affection, invariably say inheritance, or as they express it, running in the blood, from generation to generation. I was, I acknowledge, at first persuaded that the principal cause of leprosy was a condition passed down from one generation to another. After, however, a more careful investigation of almost every individual case which came under my notice, I am convinced that this theory was erroneous, as the following facts will prove :— 1st. Not only is it a known fact that there was no trace of leprosy in the Island before the arrival of persons infected with the disease, but in the localities infected where I have traced the origin of the disease it is irrevocably proved that before the arrival of a leper the disease was unknown. 2nd. In the 91 cases of leprosy which have come under my notice, and whose history is carefully recorded, I found that in two cases only, the grandfather iind grandmother had the disease : in five, the father and mother ; in seven, the father only; in six, the mother only ; in three, the father and aunt; in five, the brother only ; in two, sister