LEPEOSY IN INDIA. 



BY 



T. E. LEWIS, M.B., and D. D. CUNNINGHAM, M.B. 



INTRODUCTION:— THE DISTRIBUTION OF LEPROSY IN BRITISH INDIA. 



It is only within the last few months that it has become possible to obtain definite 

 information regarding the local distribution and comparative prevalence of leprosy 

 in the different districts of India. Now, however, that the Census Reports of 1872 

 have been issued, persons interested in the subject are in a position to form as correct 

 an opinion regarding, not only the aggregate number of lepers, but also the distribution 

 of the infirmity in India, as they are, probably, in almost any other country where 

 leprosy prevails. In such a mass of figures it is doubtless probable that many errors 

 have crept in, and that many persons have been registered as lepers who were not 

 affected with true leprosy — ^notably such as are subject to that peculiar cutaneous 

 affection characterised by more or less complete loss of pigment (LeucoderTna). On 

 the other hand, however, this excess may be balanced by the fact that quite as many, 

 if not more, have been left out altogether. 



It is evident regarding the latter possibility, that as lepers formed one of the 

 five classes of " infirmities " which were registered all over British India — the others 

 being " Insanes," " Idiots," the " Deaf and Dumb," and the " Blind " — persons may 

 have suffered from leprosy for years without having been looked upon as lepers by 

 the community, much less considered " infirm." The registration of some of the 

 other " infirmities," such as dumbness and blindness, is not so liable to be affected 

 by this manner of classification, although, even as regards such an infirmity as blind- 

 ness, persons were not unfrequently returned in this category owing to their being 

 possessed of but one eye. The want of more accurate definition was, probably, chiefly 

 owing to the difficulty experienced in dealing with the different languages and dialects 

 over such vast territories ; in not a few cases, indeed, the expressions for some of the 

 infirmities were found to have different significations in different parts of the same 

 district. 



* Appeared as an Appendix to the Twelfth Annual Repwt of the Sanitary Commwsioner with the Govern- 

 ment of India, 1876, 



