21,2 Gomez et al.: Early Lesions of Leprosy 253 
rent, the sense of thermal discrimination—that is, ability to 
distinguish between hot and cold—is the first one affected. 
The white patches, macula alba, are either precursors of 
other cutaneous or nervous leprous manifestations, or they them- 
Selves develop into definite progressive and bacteriologically 
positive leprous lesions with concomitant thermal and tactile 
anesthesia and anhidrosis. 
In a few instances we noticed the disappearance, without treat- 
ment, of leprous lesions that were either negative or positive 
bacteriologically. 
_ Children that have lived in intimate contact with lepers for 
varying lengths of time may develop leprosy, several months or 
years after they were isolated from lepers. The shortest period 
in our series was four months, and so far the longest period was 
three years and three months after isolation. 
The survey made of 308 children of leper parents born and 
living at the time in Culion Island show 24, or 7.79 per cent, 
positive lepers and 78, or 25 per cent, with suspicious or definite 
signs of leprosy though not bacteriologically positive. The 
leprosy in children affects both sexes about equally. The inci- 
dence of leprosy is in direct ratio to the age of the child: the 
older the child the greater the incidence. The youngest child 
found to be a positive leper was 3 years old, but suspicious 
blemishes have been found in children as young as 1 year of age. 
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2. DENNEY, O. E. A statistical study of leprosy in the Philippine Islands. 
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