440 



Leprosy in India. 



[part II. 



The Localities in which Leprosy is exceptionally Prevalent. 



It may be useful to indicate, generally, in what parts of the country leprosy is 

 exceptionally prevalent, so that the attention of observers who may happen to reside 

 in such localities may be arrested ; and it is hoped that they may be thus induced 

 to take a special interest in the endeavour to elucidate some peculiarities which the 

 district or its inhabitants may present when carefully searched after. It is obvious 

 that over such a vast area very small communities cannot be thought of in a general 

 review, so that, perhaps, for the purpose of the present report, it will be sufficient to 

 select such districts, or tracts of country, as are exceptionally unfortunate in this respect, 

 which contain not fewer than, say, 100,000 souls. It may be assumed that a locality 

 with such a population and with a proportion of lepers equivalent to 20 per 10,000— 

 that is to say, of 1 leper to every 500 persons — is deserving of very special attention, 

 not only for the study of the disease, but also for the purpose of devising some means 

 whereby the troubles of the unfortunate sufferers may be mitigated. 



We have, therefore, carefully examined the returns with the object of being able 

 to bring into prominent notice all the larger districts in the three Presidencies which 

 are burdened with such a high proportion of lepers as 2 per 1,000 implies, and have 

 arranged the data thus collected into the subjoined Tabular Statement : — 



TABLE III. 



Districts of 100,000 Inhabitants and upwards which contain a Leprous 

 Population equivalent (or nearly so) to 20 per 10,000. 



Presidency. 



Bengal 



Bombay 



Madras .. 



Division or 

 Collectorate. 



Burdwan 



Kumaon 



Allahabad 



Meerut 



Sholapore 



Khandesh 



Ratnagiri 



District, etc. 



Beerbhoom ... 



Bancoorah ... 



Burdwan 



Kumaon and Garhwal 



Banda* (Tehseel) ... 



Dehra Doon... 



Barsi ... 



Sowda 



Rajapore 



Total . . . 



Population of 

 District, etc. 



695,921 



526,772 

 2,034,745 

 743,602 

 108,771 

 115,771 

 130,853 

 124,519 

 168,498 



4,649,452 



Total Lepers 



in District, 



etc. 



2,872 



1.578 



4,604 



1,571 



214 



220 



335 



312 



395 



12,101 



The highest district is that of Madras itself, 10"5 per 10,000. 



Lepers per 10,000 

 of Population 

 of District, etc. 



41-2 

 30-0 

 22-6 

 21-1 

 19-6 

 19-0 

 25-6 

 25-0 

 23-4 



26-0 



The foregoing numerical data regarding the distribution of leprosy in British India, 

 can, as already stated, be accepted as only approximately correct so far as the actual 

 enumeration of the lepers is concerned, but what is probably of considerably more 

 importance in connection with the study of its etiology is, that they convey fairly 



* Girwain (population 78,848), in Banda District, contains 40 lepers per 10,000 



