284 Dr. Ainslie's Obsei-vations on the Lepra Arabum. 



the supposition of its ever having been so, must originally have proceeded 

 from the desire every one naturally evinces to shun all such as are afflicted 

 with this frightful and loathsome distemper. The most intelligent Tamool 

 doctors, with whom I have conversed on the subject, informed me, that what 

 they call Kustam (CusliCha) (Lepra Arabum) cannot be caught by infection 

 during the common intercourse of life ; but that it might perhaps be given 

 by introducing leprous blood, or ichor, into a sane habit, by means of 

 inoculation ; and this appears to be a rational enough conclusion, when we 

 reflect tliat the complaint is not, like Pruritus, confined to the skin, but 

 seems to be connected with a degeneracy of the whole fluids. I cannot find 

 any well authenticated fact of an Indian having caught the disease, by 

 associating with those wlio had it ; nor, of three Europeans whom I have 

 known to die of Elephantiasis, did either the wives or servants, who liad 

 lived with them for several years, become infected. 



There is every reason to beUeve, however, that this species of leprosy is 

 hereditary : it is certainly so flir so, that children born after the malady 

 has commenced on either of the parents, are liable to be attacked by it. 

 The Hindu medical men have no doubt that the Cusht'ha descends in this 

 way ; but at the same time they tell us, that some of the children may 

 escape it altogether, while others, though they may have remained quite 

 healthy for a number of years, will at length fall victims to the disease : 

 they have also made the same observations in this instance, which we have 

 done with regard to other hereditary evils in Europe ; that is, that one 

 generation may escape the constitutional infirmity, and the next in descent 

 suffer from it. Some authors,* who have noticed the affection as it 

 appears in other parts of the world, have told us, that men labouring under 

 it are very salacious ; I cannot learn, however, that any such peculiarity 

 attaches to the lepra in Hindust'han: on the contrary, it has been questioned! 

 whether the miserable objects afflicted by it are capable of sexual inter- 

 course : but there appears to be no good reason for supposing that they are 



* Such as Hillary in his Diseases of Barbadoes, pages 325, 326 ; Sonnini in his Travels 

 through Egypt ; Bancroft in his Natural History of Guiana, page 385, &c. ; MM. Vidal and 

 Johannis in their account of the disorder at Martigues. See a treatise on the supposed hereditary 

 nature of diseases, by J. Adams, M.D. page 91. 



f Dr. Adams, in his work on Morbid Poisons, speaks particularly of a wasting of the genitals 

 in Elephantiasis, as he found it at Madeira. 



J 



