LEPRA IN AUSTRALIA. 1045 
there is nothing but negative evidence ; lepra has never been 
observed among ‘them. Never theless, the “Australian is su sceptible 
of lepra, and it has been seen among aboriginals. In 1892 an 
aboriginal full-blood male, was recor ded at M aryborough, Queens- 
land (S. Tat., 25° E. ; Long., 154°). He roamed over the country, 
in the neighbourhood of the town named, with the remnants of 
his tribe. There are sugar plantations ther e, and for many years 
there have been kanakas at work upon them. No other aboriginal 
leper was discovered there. There is positive information that 
one kanaka leper (only) has been seen there. It must be said 
here that the information available regarding every part of 
Queensland is extremely meagre. The nature of the illness suffered 
by the kanaka was not recognised by the gentleman who reported 
it, but was easily identified by the photographs he appended to 
fe account of the case ; and it is quite certain (from the number 
of kanakas who have been employed there during a long term of 
years) that many cases must have occurred which have remained 
unrecognised. In 1894 an aboriginal suffering from leprosy was 
received at the lazaret at Port Darwin (about 8. Lat. 13°, E. Long. 
132°), his disease being then first diagnosed. I discovered, after 
some search, that he was known (by a layman) to have been ill 
since 1879. After further inquiry I satisfied myself that the 
Government Resident on the MacArthur River, N. T. (about 
S. Lat. 16°, E. Long. 137°), which debouches on the west 
side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, had observed cases of leprosy 
among aboriginals in that neighbourhood during years imme- 
diately following 1888. Two cases were mentioned—those of 
aman and a woman (the latter being the only case of a female 
aboriginal thus far brought to light), but it was not stated that 
those were all which had been seen. From the letters of still other 
lay correspondents it became apparent that lepra had been observed 
among aboriginals inhabiting the country watered by the Alligator 
Rivers, N.T. (about 8. Lat. 13° to 15° and E. Long. 132° to 134°) ; 
probably their number was considerable. Early in 1895, a male 
aboriginal was taken into Port Darwin from the Alligator country, 
and his case was identified by the Government Medical Officer in 
charge there as being one of LZ. nervorwm; thus the lay accounts— 
in themselves scarcely mistakable—were to some extent corrobo- 
rated hy medical opinion. Noteworthy points in this connection 
are the very late date at which the first case of lepra in an 
aboriginal was noted—namely, in 1892; and while it seems likely 
that lepra must have existed among the aboriginals at several 
- points of the Northern Territory (which, by the way, has an area 
of nearly half a million square miles) for a good many years, yet 
it would be presuming a little too far to take it that it occurred 
among them while one or other tribe of them might be regarded 
as in their primeval state. On the other hand, if imported to 
