PART II.] Small Number of Children born to Leprous Parents. 479 



probability of actual increase is almost nil. The foregoing table shows, that the 

 mortality among the offspring of lepers is very high. 39'4 per cent, of the children 

 of female lepers is seen to have succumbed at an early age, or 33*6 per cent, when 

 the mortality of the juvenile offspring of both the male and the female lepers is 

 estimated ; it is therefore probable that a considerable proportion of those still living 

 will be short-lived. Up to the present time only 5 cases of leprosy have manifested 

 themselves among the children, and of these 1 is dead, so that only 4 of the 

 leper parents have been substituted as yet by leper children, leaving an excess of 

 48 to be accounted for. The proportion of lepers among these children is 

 very small, which is probably due to the fact that many of them are still beneath 

 the age at which the disease usually manifests itself. At the same time many 

 others are adults, manifest no indications of leprosy, are married, and have apparently 

 healthy children. 



Our figures seem to suggest that another fact should be taken into consideration 

 in endeavouring to estimate the risk of increase in the leper population, and this is 

 the very small number of children produced by the majority of the leprous 

 parents. 



In connection with this point, it is very remarkable to observe how much smaller 

 a number of children is to be credited to the male than to the female lepers, 

 the absolute numbers being 27 and 76 respectively, and the averages of 

 children to families being 1-08 in one case and 2*8 in the other, or after 

 deducting those cases in which both parents were lepers, TO and 't^ respectively. 

 A third of the male married lepers have no offspring. So far as the evi- 

 dence goes, the total number contributed to the population by the female lepers 

 is about 70 per cent, in excess of that contributed by the males. As a set-off to 

 this, however, the table shows that about 24 per cent, more of the children born 

 to female lepers died than of the children born to male lepers. 



If the figures really mean the actual occurrence of larger families where the 

 female than where the male parent is leprous, several explanations of the pheno- 

 menon suggest themselves. It appears probable that the age at which the disease 

 is developed exerts an important influence. It cannot, however, act directly to any 

 great extent, for, as a general rule, we know that the disease tends to be 

 developed as soon, if not sooner, in the female than in the male. It is the 

 inequality in the age of the parents which appears likely to tell on the number 

 of children. In this country there is often such great disparity between the ages of 

 men and their wives that, allowing the age for the manifestation of disease to be 

 practically alike for both, the females have a much longer time previous to its advent 

 in which to produce children than the males have. 



That the age of manifestation of the disease really does influence the numbers 

 of children in one way or other is supported by the facts recorded in the following 

 table, which shows the ages at which the parents became leprous and the numbers 



