BY SYDNEY B. J. SKERTCHLY. 11 



of the non-existence of the disease, it will strike every anthro- 

 pologist that it is roughly contenninous with the division between 

 the brown and the black race, and that the black race is the clean 

 one. 



Over all the East Indian part of our area, we have only one 

 case of infected aborigines reported to us, and this of the most 

 doubtful character. We refer to the Jakuns of the IMuar district 

 of Johor. The case is an interesting one, for this is the native 

 home of the gurjun oil which has achieved such a reputation 

 as a specific in Leprosy. It has long been a native drug, yet, 

 the natives suft'er much fiom skin diseases, and it is significent 

 that they alone are suspected of Leprosy. More to our point is 

 the fact that this tribe is in close contact with the oldest 

 European settlement in this part of the far east. To this. 

 question we shall return. 



All the lesser Sunda Islands and the NeAv Guinea group are 

 free from Leprosy. 



Tiu'ning to the Pacific we find by an analysis of the old 

 voyages that there is proof that when first visited by Europeans 

 the entire area was free from the disease. At the present time 

 there are three centres. So far as European influence is con- 

 cerned, we may state the case thus : — New Caledonia is French,, 

 Fiji is English, Hawaii is practically American ; but neither the- 

 French, the English, nor the Americans can have introduced 

 the disease, for they are not leprous. Fiji is peopled by the 

 black race, New Caledonia by a mixed black and l)rown people, 

 Hawaii by a brown race. All have become lepers. 



In view of this strange and unexpected distril)ution of 

 Leprosy, it behoved us to look for some common factor. Cli- 

 mate, physical and geological conditions were clearly out of the 

 question ; yet the disease had a definite relation to the ethno-- 

 graphy of the area. The appended table gives the state of our 

 present knowledge. 



The Common Factor. — If we examine the ethnographical 

 table, it will be seen that in nut n s'nvjle inst'incc nrc tlic )i(itirc 

 raccH attuckeil irithont there hcuit/ ('Jnne.se lepers in the cniDitri/. 



It is hardly realised how widely, and in what enormous 

 numbers, the Chinese are dispersed over the Far East. Eefer- 



