448 Leprosy in India. [part ii. 



may be said to correspond to a county in England; and each of these parganas again 

 is sub-divided into pattis, which may be described as parishes. Each patti has one 

 of its leading men told off who is the recognised channel of communication between 

 the inhabitants of the villages within its boundaries and the Civil authorities. It 

 is through these officials that the population has been estimated. 



We found that there was no absolute uniformity in the data supplied from the 

 different pattis. In some of the returns no mention is made of the presence or 

 absence of lepers in the particular district, whereas in other returns the halt, the 

 blind and the lepers are returned under one heading. And further, it is probable 

 that, in the majority of instances, the cutaneous affection commonly spoken of by 

 the people as " white leprosy " — Leucoderma — has also been entered in the same 

 column. These remarks apply to all three censuses. Moreover, not unfrequently lepers 

 have been returned as residing in certain districts when the first census was taken, 

 and similar entries are to be found in the last census, but all mention of them in 

 the intervening census is omitted. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, however, the 

 information regarding the distribution of leprosy approximates to the truth with 

 an accuracy sufficient for all practical purposes. These statistics, moreover, have 

 probably had the advantage of closer scrutiny than any other series embracing a 

 like area in India, as not only has the marked prevalence of the disease in the 

 district drawn the attention of the officials generally to the matter in a special manner, 

 but the Commissioner has for more than thirty years personally taken the warmest 

 interest in the subject, as may be inferred from his having founded an asylum at 

 Almora to provide shelter for such of the lepers as were homeless, and in various 

 other ways provided for the well-being of the poor creatures all over the country 

 who, though leprous, were not actually wandering outcasts. 



It may therefore, we think, be assumed that the data upon which these statistical 

 observations are based are of more than average accuracy, and may be taken as 

 fairly representing the general distribution of the disease in this part of the country, 

 as well as sufficiently precise to afford evidence whether it be on the increase or 

 on the decline among these hills. 



According to the first census that was taken of the district, there were 1,075 

 lepers, or very nearly equal to a ratio of 3 per 1,000, the exact fraction being 

 2-98. Twelve years later the actual number of lepers returned was somewhat larger, 

 being 1,128, but the proportion to the total population slightly diminished, viz., 

 2-85 per mille, instead of 2*98. The returns which were received eight years later, 

 however, showed a marked decrease both in the total numbers returned, 789, and 

 in the proportion of lepers to the rest of the people, which, according to the census 

 of 1872" (see page 449), was not quite 2 per 1,000, though very nearly so. 



There is little doubt, however, that these figures under-state rather than over- 

 state the actual prevalence of the disease, for it is evident that for the most part only 



* These figures difEer slightly from those given in the Census Report of the North-West Provinces. 



