252 The Philippine Journal of Science 1922 
Analyzing the data in Table 5, we notice that the positive lepers 
number 24, or 7.79 per cent of the total number of children (308) 
examined; of these 12 are males and 12 are females. The clin- 
ical lepers numbers 20, or 6.4 per cent; the suspicious, 58, or 
18.8 per cent; and the nonlepers, 206, or 66.8 per cent. The 
distribution between sexes is practically the same, except in the 
clinical lepers among whom there is a greater number of females. 
The incidence of the disease is greater as the children grow 
older. Taking the cases of undoubted leprosy, the positive 
lepers, and separating the children into three age groups in order 
to get average data for comparison, we find that there are 19 
children from 10 to 13 years of age, inclusive, of which 7, or 
36.8 per cent, are positive lepers; 108 children from 5 to 9 
years, inclusive, of which 13, or 12 per cent, are positive lepers ; 
and 181 children under 5 years of age, of which 4, or 2 per 
cent, are positive lepers. The youngest child found positive 
was 3 years old; the youngest child only clinically a leper was 
2 years old; and the youngest children with suspicious blem- 
ishes were 1 year old. 
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 
The children born of leper parents show about the same sus- 
ceptibility to other morbid conditions as children of nonleper 
parentage. The mortality on account of congenital debility is 
higher than in children born in nonleper populations, but this 
greater mortality due to congenital debility is counterbalanced 
by the lesser mortality due to infantile beriberi, a disease that 
has practically disappeared in Culion on account of the exclusive 
use of unpolished rice as the staple article of diet. 
Our data indicate that the most-frequent recognizable site of 
the early lesion of leprosy is the skin, and that the infection 
through this route is greatly favored, presumably, on account of 
the great prevalence of skin diseases among the children, which 
offer anatomical conditions favorable to the invasion of the lepra 
bacillus. 
‘| The most-frequent recognizable early lesion of leprosy is 
macular lesion of the skin. In Filipino children this manifests 
itself in whitish, fawn-colored patches, which at the beginning 
may not show the bacillus of leprosy or disturbances that may 
be attributed to the innervation of the affected region, such as 
diminution in the sense of touch, thermal discrimination, sensi- 
bility to pain, or disturbance in the secretory power of the 
sweat glands. Later, when nervous disturbances become appa- 
