PART II.] 



Average Age of Attack of Leprosy 



471 



averages show that the average date of attack was latest in pure anaesthetic cases, 

 earliest in those in which tubercular symptoms predominated, and, as might have 

 been expected, intermediate for the mixed and eruptive cases. The climax of 

 anaesthetic cases occurred in the decennial period between thirty and forty, but 

 the number of cases for the two preceding periods was almost equal to it, whilst that 

 in the two following ones is less than a quarter as great, and is followed by the 

 minimum in the next. In the tuberculated form, on the other hand, the maximum 

 occurred in the second decennial period ; the number furnished by the third is 

 diminished by one-half, and is followed by the minimum in the fourth period. The 

 mixed cases are more equally distributed, but the numbers show two maxima, one 

 in the first, the other in the fourth period, probably indicating a division of the 

 cases into two sections, one in which the ana3sthetic, the other in which the tuber- 

 cular element predominated. The four cases of eruptive leprosy are equally distributed 

 over the first four decennial periods. 



There is one point in which these figures regarding the age of attack do not 

 correspond with those derived from some other sources, and this is that, in regard 

 to average age of attack compared with sex, there is no evidence of a tendency to 

 earlier attack in females than males. On the contrary, the average age for the females 

 is slightly in excess of that for the males. That this average is not fallacious, but 

 really corresponded with a greater tendency to early attack among the males, is 

 shown by the following statement of numbers of attacks in the sexes according to 

 decennial periods : — 



TABLE XIV. 

 Age of Attack in the Mcdes and Females according to Decennial Pei^iods, 



The phenomenon in the present instance is no doubt in great measure due 

 to the differences in the percentage of males and females suffering from anaesthetic 

 and tuberculated leprosy, for the percentage of females for the former was 70*5, 

 and that of the males was only 55*5, whilst the conditions were reversed in regard 

 to tubercular leprosy, 20-0 per cent, of the males and only 5-8 per cent, of the 

 females suffering from it. The average age of attack for females in the anaesthetic 



