Prize essays on leprosy / Thompson ; Cantlie.

  • Thompson, John Ashburton, 1848-1915.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prize essays on leprosy / Thompson ; Cantlie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    101/430 (page 91)
    buted to the home-dwellers. The proportion borne by the new cases in the whole of the infected part of the country in each year to the total home-dwellers at the close of the last preceding year from 1857 to 1885 was as follows; the figures for years subsequent to 1885 being still subject to some slight adjustment in the usual course : 1857 • • 9’1 IS58 . . 8-8 1859 . . 104 i860 . . 9-8 1861 . . 100 1862 . . IO*I IS63 . vq 00 1864. • 105 1865. ] 0'4 1866. . 107 1867. . 107 1868. . 11*2 1869. . 9 S 1870. . IO* I 1871 . . 9 *6 1872 . . 7*6 1873 . . 7-8 1874 . . 8 6 1875 . . 8*6 1876 . . 6*5 1877 . . 7-2 1878 . • 7'8 1S79 • . 6*6 1880 . • 5'1 1881 . • 4'2 1882 . • 4'4 1883 . . 6*i 1884 . . 2*1 1885 . 2*2 For about half this term, then, the proportion of new cases to home-dwellers remained steady enough. So far the figures do not negate proportionateness, though by themselves they could scarcely be taken to demonstrate it ; but those for the remaining half do negate proportionate- ness. The year 1872 was marked by a decrease in the proportion between new cases and home-dwellers ; and that proportion thereafter continued to fall at least as steadily as it had been maintained before. Dr. Hansen's main argument of this kind is unmistak- able, although I have to admit that as yet I have not suc- ceeded in following the reasoning he bases on such details as he refers to, rather than gives with the fulness which his long experience would readily permit, and which the importance of his statement requires. After making every reasonable allowance, I conclude that the evidence of com- munication from the sick which he thus adduces is not as convincing as it may appear, perhaps, at first sight. The figures bear the interpretation, as it seems to me, that some general cause inimical to the infection came into operation in the course of nature, at a date somewhat before the year 1870, and better bear it. So, also, though there is no doubt that leprosy was in- creasing during a few years prior to 1856, it cannot be asserted plausibly that it would have continued to increase but for the practice of control. For, in the first place, such an assertion would run counter to our knowledge of the