LEPRA IN AUSTRALIA. 1047 
The epidemiology of the disease in New South Wales may be sum- 
marised as follows :—Between 1856, when the first case in a white 
occurred, and 1882, no less than 15 cases in whites are known to have 
been nee with, the dates of attack being ascribed to eleven of the 
year's in that series of twenty-seven years; and during thatterm only 
one West Indian, who was observed (under confinement in a lunatic 
asylum) suffering from L. nervorum, and one Chinese, a patient in 
a general hospital, also affected with Z. nervorum, were noted, in 
1859 and 1861 respectively, among immigrants from leprosy-areas. 
During the years from 1882 to the present date many cases in 
coloured immigrants and in whites were recorded, as shown in the 
Table; so that during those twenty seven years a good many cases 
were observed in whites, and in coloured immigrants only two cases. 
In Victoria, the course of events was exactly contrary. From 
1858 (and apparently from two or three years earlier) the presence 
of Chinese lepers was known and officially recorded. Their number 
nevertheless, remains doubtful. It is certain there were several 
in 1858 ; thirteen were recorded at a date subsequent to 1863 ; 
thirty-one were enumerated in 1866 ; and, from the records, it is 
apparent that there were always several Chinese lepers scattered 
over the territory down to 1889. Between 1863 and 1867 a white 
leper was noted ; but he had lived ten years in India, and it was 
clearly stated he had acquired his disease there. No other white 
case was observed until 1884 (attacked in 1879), and this patient 
was a native of New South Wales who had lived in Sydney, 
where he was born, from 1859 to 1867, and then in New Zealand 
(an old leprosy-ar ea) until 1874, when he arrived in Victoria. A 
third case was observed in a white in 1891. He had been born in 
India, and until his arrival in Victoria in 1885 had been a sailor 
trading in the East. He was attacked in 1889. So that while many 
cases In Chinese have been observed and recorded in Victoria 
between 1858 and the present date, there never has been noted 
any case in a native Victorian, nor any in whites but such as 
were (as to two of them), or may have been (as to the third), 
imported after acquiring the disease. 
Secondly, it is to be observed that during nearly all the years 
dealt with, lepers were in both these territories entirely free and 
unrestrained, whether they were white or coloured. In New 
South Wales some provision was made for isolation of a few 
coloured lepers who had become helpless and destitute, and who 
were therefore isolated voluntarily in a sense, in 1883. During 
the following years one or two others were isolated under indirect 
pressure, as well as some more who came in as being helpless ; but 
it was not until 1890 that by Act of Parliament the forcible 
detention of those already in captivity was made legal, and the 
reporting and detention of all cases which might be detected for 
the future was made compulsory both on medical men and on the 
