452 Leprosy in India. [part ii. 



and village within its limits. The information thus collected was graphically 

 represented on charts of the district so as to ascertain whether a more clear con- 

 ception of the distribution of the malady could be obtained by this means than 

 was obtainable by a study of the figures alone. It was our intention originally to 

 have reproduced the greater portion of these charts, but we found that they all told 

 pretty much the same story, and we have therefore decided on reproducing merely 

 the chart which illustrates the distribution of the disease as deduced from the 

 average ratios of the three censuses. We have, however, reproduced a condensed 

 tabular statement showing the prevalence of the disease in the various parganas for 

 all the periods mentioned, as well as the series of figures upon which the scale- 

 shading of the map is based, which will be found in the fourth column of figures in 

 the following table. 



A glance at the figures and at the map is sufficient to arrest attention at once 

 to the fact that leprosy prevails to a far greater extent along the eastern side of 

 the district than along the western. This is not only the story which the figures 

 of any particular census convey, nor yet of the average of all three censuses, but 

 of each of them independently. As a rule, also, the most populous districts, and 

 probably the most well-to-do, are those containing the largest ratio of lepers. 



We have found it impracticable to represent graphically any information regaiding 

 the comparative prevalence of the disease in the valleys and on the hills on the present 

 occasion. This is a question which it will be more convenient to discuss after the 

 investigation of the localities themselves has been made. Indeed, the utmost that 

 we can attempt at present on this point is to indicate generally the parts of the 

 district where the malady is most prevalent. 



Notwithstanding the fact that the same parganas (or counties) persistently maintain 

 a larger ratio of such persons, a study of the figures of these censuses tends to indicate 

 that the leprous population is a shifting one so far as the particular towns and villages 

 which they frequent is concerned ; for the papers before us show that out of an average 

 of 574 communities which contained lepers, taking all three censuses, only 35 of all 

 these communities are found entered as containing lepers in all three returns. This 

 peculiarity can, we think, hardly be fully accounted for by referring it to registration 

 errors. We have endeavoured to analyse these returns still further in order to elucidate 

 this matter, and find that although in some places, such as shrines and the like, there 

 is a decided tendency to the aggregation of a number of lepers, nevertheless the 

 more general distribution appears to be pretty equal amongst the population. For 

 example, out of the above given average of 574 communities in Kumaon associated with 

 lepers, there were only 63 communities, taking the average of the three censuses, 

 that contained 4 lepers, or a percentage of 4 or more. At present these facts are merely 

 put on record because they deserve attention, but any detailed remarks which a study 

 of them suggests will be more profitably made when the local inquiries have been 

 completed. 



