INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND MICROBES, ETC. 209 



period the disease has spread to districts where it 

 was previously unknown, until now almost every 

 district in Colombia is more or less infected. 

 According to a medical authority residing in 

 Bogota, it is stated that one-tenth of the inhabit- 

 ants of Santander and Boyaca are lepers. As the 

 population of these two states is about 1,000,000, 

 this estimate would give 100,000 lepers in that por- 

 tion of Colombia alone. Another authority states 

 that there are only 30,000 lepers in the two states 

 previously mentioned; but whichever figure is. 

 correct, it shows that a large percentage of the 

 inhabitants are suffering from this fell disease. 

 Marriages constantly take place between non-lepers 

 and lepers, and children are born of these unions ; 

 but they generally develop the disease in a few 

 years. The lepers also marry among themselves, 

 and their children are almost always lepers. Very 

 little is done in the way of isolation, consequently 

 leprosy is bound to spread more and more through- 

 out Colombia unless some great effort is made to 

 arrest its progress. It is the universal opinion all 

 over Colombia that leprosy is both contagious and 

 hereditary ; but it is probable that the system 

 requires to be predisposed by bad food, unsuitable 

 climate, dirty and confined lodging, exposure to 

 chills and damp, etc., before leprosy can be con- 

 tracted by contagion. There is no doubt that the 

 absence of hygienic appliances and personal clean- 

 liness aid its development immensely. 1 



So far as is at present known, there is no cure for 



1 See the British Consular Report from Boyota,, 1891. 



