78 TlMEHRI. 



find from the official reports that over 500 were dealt 

 with. Around this Leper Asylum, outside its boundaries, 

 there are large numbers of lepers not included in these 

 returns. If leprosy be not contagious, how comes it that 

 these cases of leprosy exist outside the Asylum in larger 

 numbers than in other parts of the colony ? And it should 

 be remembered that there is no isolation at the Asylum, 

 but that the lepers can go in and out as they please. 



It being conceded then that leprosy is on the increase 

 here and elsewhere, it naturally behoves us to try and 

 ascertain in what manner, and by what means, the 

 disease thus spreads, with the view of suggesting a 

 remedy if such can be found. 



Leprosy may be transmitted by (1) Intermarriage or 

 cohabitation and (2) Inoculation or contact. 



(1.) Intermarriage with or among lepers must ac- 

 count for a certain number of cases. Those in which 

 both parties are leprous and marry, are doubtless 

 few and far between ; the greater number of lepers 

 who cohabit do not marry, the leper man may 

 live with a healthy woman, or vice versa. It has 

 been conclusively proved that if a man with leprosy 

 marries a healthy woman, in time the latter will become 

 affected. It may be as many as nine or ten years before 

 the disease makes its appearance, but appear it almost 

 surely will, if long enough time be allowed to elapse. 

 Cases in point have occurred in this colony in the writer's 

 own practice and that of others ; in particular, one may 

 be related known to many local practitioners, viz., that 

 of a leper shop-keeper who married a healthy woman. 

 For eight years his wife, who had not the slightest 

 taint in her family, remained perfectly free from any 



