BY SYJ>XEY B, J. SKERTCHLY. 7 



leprous only on portions of the coast, in fact, only where coolies- 

 from the infected provinces have settled. The aborigines of 

 both islands are clean. 



It appears then, that so far as China is concerned, the great 

 centre is the southern coast provinces of Kwantung and Fokien, 

 a most important fact whose dread significaiice will be made clear 

 in the seqiiel. Even here the disease does not appear to be so 

 rife as formerly, and there are numerous so-called Li'iwr Vilhif/es 

 in which not a leper now exists, though the people still draw the 

 government grant for lepers. Still the disease is very common, 

 and scores of lepers may be seen in Canton, and in many a 

 smaller town and village. Macao has its lepers isolated on a 

 separate island ; there is a colony of lepers within ten miles of 

 Hongkong, on the island uf Chung-chau, and lepers are by no 

 means so rare on Hongkong island, as is commonly believed 

 here ; we have examined some three hundred cases in the past 

 five years. 



2. Ixdo-Chixa. — Taking the blunt peninsula over which 

 French influence prevails as coming under this heading, we find 

 that Leprosy is endemic all along the coast ; that it is, as might 

 be expected, most rife in Tonkin, bordering on the province of 

 Kwantung, and that it was in old times much more frequent 

 than at present. The French authorities, who most kindly aided 

 us in our research, tell us that the Mission Hospital reports, 

 dating back over two hundred years, show that hundreds of cases 

 used to occiir where now only tens are encountered. One 

 Hospital now serves where several were needed before. There is 

 not a particle of evidence that the wilder tribes of the interior 

 have Leprosy among them. 



8. The M.\lay Peninsula. — In the Malay Peninsula Leprosy 

 is again rife ; but here also it is confined to the coast and the 

 settled parts inland. The interior natives are not leprous, with 

 the single doubtful exception of the Jakuns of the Muar district 

 of Johor, bordering on the ancient Portuguese colony of ^lalacca. 

 Even here its presence is only an inference, from the reported 

 occurence of Jakuns with mutilated toes or fingers, but no 

 I^uropean doctor has seen a Jakun leper, though at least one 

 has spent years in the district. 



