Goldie. — Maoti Medical Lore. 61 



by Dr. Arthur S. Thomson* in 1854. He saw six cases. The 

 disease, he writes, appears to have been more frequent earlv in 

 this century. In 1854, if a native were asked if he knew any 

 one ill with ngerengere, he would generally recollect one or two 

 cases. Thomson knew a Maori who had seen ten cases in one 

 village. Four cases were admitted to the Auckland Hospital 

 in four years. At the present day only two or three cases of 

 the native leprosy are known to exist among the Maoris. One 

 case is reported to be at Tawata, a village on the Upper Wanga- 

 nui River, and another at Rangiriri. Mr. W. E. Goffe reported 

 the former case in the year 1901, but the following note from a 

 recent newspaper probably refers to the same patient : " While 

 in the Wanganui district lately [1903] he [Dr. Pomare, Native 

 Health Officer] discovered an undeniable case of leprosv (the 

 Maori ngerengere) at an up-river Maori settlement some fifteen 

 miles above Wanganui Town. He made experiments which 

 convinced him of the presence of the bacilli of leprosy. The 

 sufferer has been isolated from the other Maoris. Certain other 

 suspicious cases have from time to time been reported to Dr. 

 Pomare, but the only ones in the colony proved to be leprosy are 

 two Maoris, besides a Chinaman in Otago." It is, however, stated 

 in the census of 1896 that " three cases of native leprosy exist." 

 They are among the tribes residing in the districts north of 

 Auckland, and they appeared to be of recent origin. One case 

 of supposed leprosy was found also near Rotorua." Lepra 

 gangrenosa is said to have occurred in all parts of New Zealand, 

 but chiefly in the North Island in the Rotorua and Taupo dis- 

 tricts. 



Dr. Thomson described the disease as lepra gangrenosa, 

 and his account, which I will now quote fully, is the only one 

 that exists. He states that "ngerengere, or the lepra gangrenosa 

 of the New-Zealanders, commences with a cutaneous eruption 

 on the extremities, which extends over the trunk of the body. 

 The eruption presents, in some parts, the oval patches and the 

 copious exfoliation of a brown, scaly, morbid cuticle, observed 

 in lepra vulgaris ; the irregular patches of psoriasis ; and. oc- 

 casionally, the innumerable fissures, the elongated and extensive 

 cracks, as in ichthyosis. This is accompanied with troublesome 

 pricking and itching. The eruption goes on for months or years, 

 increasing, and decreasing, and disappearing, partially or en- 

 tirely. Gradually the hair on the eyebrows, eyelashes, whiskers, 

 and beard falls out ; not the hair of the head, the axillae, or the 

 pubes. The skin becomes livid, the eyeballs prominent, and a 

 copious discharge of tears flows from them. The voice changes 

 its tone ; the face, nose, lips, the forehead and eyebrows, be- 



* Brit, and For. Med. Chir. Review, 1854, p. 496. 



