Modern Indian leprosy : being the report of a tour in Kattiawar, 1876 : with addenda on Norwegian, Cretan and Syrian leprosy.
- Henry Vandyke Carter
- Date:
- 1876
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Modern Indian leprosy : being the report of a tour in Kattiawar, 1876 : with addenda on Norwegian, Cretan and Syrian leprosy. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
28/110 page 18
![hand, now dry ; an irregular village with the usual heaps of rubbish and ruins : about 250 houses, and a population (1,131) of Kunbis, Kolia, Brahtnans, Wanis, Kathis, Ace. Food—bajra, jowra ; urid and mung : water from draw-wells only. No guinea-worm here : but one leper is known, he is away just now : I saw his brother (an ancemic man, yet free from all apparent disease) who, with others, gives the following infor- mation :— An adult Koli, 2 years a leper (has probably T. L.), a labourer, born elsewhere, here for 5 years and has travelled about; is the youngest of 4 brothers, there are also 3 sisters, 1 younger and 2 older than the leper ; all except him free from this malady, nor is there any previous family taint, so far as known. Is married and has a daughter 1 year old. Cause of disease in this man not surmised. It is asserted by the old patel and bis aged friends who were collected together, that previously to this instance leprosy was unknown in the village. Judging from appearances one might have anticipated the reverse, if insanitary conditions are exclusively concerned with the production of the disease. To Bhamodra, 1 coss to the east in the open plain : trees and a prominent square tower, the new house of the reigning Garassia; an irregularly built place of 250 houses and 1,279 in- habitants ; the people are Kunbis, Kathis, Kolis, Acc. Food— bajra, jowra ; urid and mung : well-water. No guinea-worm : three cases of leprosy are known ; the disease is termed Kodia, but the more accurate name of Patia is understood. 1. —M., Ahir (the caste is low but pretentious, will eat with Kathis, but not intermarry ; acknowledged to be lower than Kunbi, Sutar or Kumbhar—a different report to common, but condit ions are rather pecul iar here, as two Garassia [ Kai h i] families overrule the rest, patel and all), rot. 50, born at a dis- tance, here for 40 years, has not travelled far, holds land on a feudal tenure of servitude: disease for 4 years, it began with numbness of the right great toe, then the hands were affected and vesicles appeared. A case of N. L ; face and ears hardly changed, yet complexion is ancemic and there are dark, shiny stains : on the trunk much hair, no eruption visible : hands somewhat atrophied and wrinkled, inner fiDger stumpy, nails gone, numbness at outer and back surfaces of arm and pronounced on back of hand and elbows, where are vesicles and excoriations: mus- cular power hardly impaired in the rather thin arms. Lower extremities in a similar state : great toes eroded at tips and so some others, with vesicles, numbness of feet and again at frout of knees (vesicles here). Family taint denied ; a brother and sister near his own age died of fever (which is very common here) : he cannot account for this disease in himself alone. Is married : has 3 sons aud a daughter, the youngest 8 years ; all well. Was in this place when the thing came on, cannot recollect any particular circumstance con- cerned at the time, was then working hard in the fields : never ate fish, never bad syphilis: lives barely apart, looks thin but the trunk is not emaciated. An instance of neuritis, obscure in origin if not due to hard work and exposure. 2. —F., Kathi caste, rot. 50, born at a distance, here for 40 years and has not left the village : disease since 8 years, thore were first vesicles and numbness of the hands and feet: it is also a marked case of N. L. Nothing on the face ; trunk not inspected, any eruption is denied : the hands are apictureof the consequences of nerve-disease—‘daws’—numb- ness as far as elbows : feet equally deformed, some toes on left foot entirely gone : numbness as high as knees. Hus- band a farmer : she has a son and daughter of 10 and 20; all are well : family taint is denied ; was here when the disease came on and doing only her household work. Does not live near No. 1. Her sister lived here, dying 8 years ago of fever ; she cannot account for herself alone being affected : general condition fair: still lives with her family. A still more obscure case of neuritis. 3. —Described as a Koli man, equally solitary in his sufferings : not seen, as he is away. The patel and others are too reticent or unobservant to give any history of leprosy in this village : they declare the above are the only instances ever known here, but a leper woman at Kundla (case No. 11) referred her disease to this locality ; and the people assembled were unwilling to speak freely in the presence of the Kathi Garassia(Mr. Bhoj Kam&oi), who took a promioent part in my enquiries and afterwards acted as the hospitable host. Then to Mekda, 2 coss to the N.E., further in the plains ; walled ; upwards of 100 houses and 746 people who are Kolis, Kunbis, Lohanas, Ace. : food—bajra, jowra, Acc.: well-water. No guinea-worm : one leper. M, Barber, ro*. 50, born at a distance, here for 20 years, has not travelled far; disease for 7 years: he had hiccough (? indigestion) for several days, then came blisters and numbness on the fingers; at this time was plying his vocation here, and cannot account for these symptoms : is in fair bodily condition. Nothing noticed on the face : trunk (back and front) covered with large, pale-reddish patches and the same extend to the arms; are not benumbed on the trunk : bands greatly mutilated, the two last phalangeal rows are gone and on left hand the whole of the little finger, numbness almost limited to back of hand or reaching very little above the wrist. Feet less affected : there is numbness ; below ankles and including the soles : some distortion of left foot. Muscular power in limbs hardly impaired. Parents and older ancestors never thus affected : is married and has I 3 sons of 12, 10 and 8 ; saw them ; they look well ; has i a sister who is welT. No other leper here before this man | came (?) ; he does not shave in other villages ; denies syphilis and cannot account for his disease. On further enquiry I learn there was a Lohano leper living here, who died soon after this man came and might have been shaved by him ; he seems to have had T. L. and did not live near the barber. If a possibility of contagion be allowed, it must then be admitted that the period of incuba- tion (or of very mild manifestation) was considerable, extending over some 10 years or more, and this is often an inevitable inference, which as it seems prima facie to point to an improbability, can only be amended by supposing that the disease has lasted longer in the second subject, than is commonly stated—a not unreasonable supposition as mat- ters are as yet understood. This man goes about as usual : wife dead ; lives with his sons who shave the people. One or two of these lads have pale spots cn the cheeks, but such an appearance is not infrequent in children here and may possibly be scars from excoriation of the dark-hued cuticle, which require a long time to assume their complete pigmented character. Their father is a true leper. 3rd February.—At Kundla, 6 coss to the W. A large town, the head-quarters of administration for a populous district all around: situated in the plain, divided by a strictly local stream into Kundla proper (1,900 houses with 5,274 people) and the suburb of Sawar (1,000 houses with 5,063 inhabitants) ; soil volcanic ; cultivated and arable land, marsh and rock in the neighbourhood ; trees few. Houses constructed chiefly of mud and stones : tiled : brick and worked masonry are not unfrequent and a few superior buildings— especially those of the administration —are solidly and well constructed : imperfect fortifications on the elevated area occupied by the town. People of various castes—Wanis of two kinds, Brahmans, Kolis, Kumbhars, weavers, arti- ficers, Dhers, Mussulmans. Food—bajra and jowra, some wheat and rice ; urid, mung, Acc. : very little animal food is eaten, and then only by the Mussulmans and some Kolis, Acc.: fresh fish is very scarce, some salt fish is imported from the nearest port : the great majority of the people follow their leaders the Mabajans in being strict vegetarians, and in opposing all destruction of animal life of any kind and for any purposes. Drinking-water chiefly from the river, whose dry bed is now (February) dotted over with small pits, whence water is taken by women after slow percolation through the superficial gravelly stratum : the wells vary in depth according to their position, and those at a distance from the river generally furnish only brackish water; some](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22392798_0030.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
