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
Catalogue details

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.

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    particular attention. Taking the more infested districts, we find that while much of the surface is covered by- disease, yet that even in Duskrohi, Talaja, Mhowa and Kundla (adding Gogha and Datta), leper-villages are not indiscriminately scattered ; and the remark everywhere applies within these areas. Thus, the chief town always represents a chief ‘focus’ (whether of radiation or concentration I will not here discuss) : next, the villages immediately around are affected, and beyond these pass off,as it were, ‘lines’of leper-localitiesin various directions, which may meet and blend, or become continuous, with similar lines in adjoining districts. Examples are these : —around the capital of Bhaonagar are Nari, Tersimia, Rewapura ; Wartej, Sidsar, Sampara and Budhel—the last four being all on a main road to Gogha, which fur- ther westward has leper-villages all along its course : around Sihor is another group ; so round Palitana and Kundla; notably round Mhowa with its suburb of Kutpar ; and so with Datta, Talaja, Trapaj and Gogha. Again, the larger towns aud villages may also be regarded as secondary foci (as it were) : witness Gariadhar (Palitana taluka), Wanda (Kundla district), Ivnntaoda M. and Sedarda (Mhowa d.), Dihor (Talaja d.), Koliak (Duskrohi district). The ‘ lines’ of leper-villages in all these more infested areas, are usually evident enough in the larger Map ; good instances are those connecting Jesur and Kundla, from Wanda to Mesanka northward and southward across the hills from Hipawadli to Vadal ; also from Kundla to Rajula, from Dtingar eastward, and a very clear line from Bagdana to Talaja ; others from Talaja to Trapaj, and along the sea-coast to Koliak and Gogha. Interruptions in these tracks are so rare that they may be regarded as confirmative exceptions, for I do not pretend to say that leprosy has passed in one direction only along the routes indicated—it may have come in opposite directions and not quite met: the most marked exceptional instance I have met with, is that of Nana Jhinjodra, a little eastward of Kundla (seethe Diary for Keb. 9, page 24). In some cases a ‘group’ of leper-villages may’be found clustering together, though not unconnected with other affected places ; there are such groups at Mesanka and other places in Kundla, at Dugheri (see Mhowa), Gopnath and Dihor (Talaja), Paniali (Duskrohi). At present, I find hardly a single instance in which a leper-village does not form either a ‘ focus,’ or a part of 1 lines’ or ‘ groups’ such as those now mentioned. Next adverting to the less infested areas, a similar methodic distribution of leper-villages will be found. Thus the inland districts of Sihor, Umrala and Gadhda, Lilia and Palitana, and even Babra, all display these strik- ing features of ‘ foci’ and lines of infested places, where alone leprosy is to be found ; and from the circumstance of their isolation amidst numerous uncontaminated localities, such lines become even more distinct than they are in coast-lying and other areas more largely attacked. By aid of the map and the subjoined table of statistics, NORMAL AND LEPER STATISTICS OF THE BHAONAGAR STATE. Districts. Position. Area in Square Miles. 1 Popu- lation, Normal. Disease. No. of Tillages. Persons to Sq. M. Village to Sq. Ms. 1 in Mean Popula- tion of Villages. No. of Lepers. Lepers to Popu- lation ; 1 in Lepers to Sq. M. 1 in Leper Villages. Leper Villages to Total Villages; 1 in ►4 . £ S £ « a. •—* Jr* Leper Village to Sq. M. 1 in Mean Popu- lation Leper Villages. Duskrohi Coast 220 27,385 51 130 4-3 537 61 450 3-6 24 2-1 2-54 9-1 689 Talaja Coast 220 28,952 78 135 2-8 371 56 517 3-7 27 2-8 2-04 8-1 452 Mhowa Coast 620 84,432 181 140 3*4 469 141 600 4-4 60 3- 2-35 10-3 610 Kundla Inland 550 74,455 103 140 5-3 716 131 568 4-2 52 1-94 2-47 10-3 1,047 Lilia Inland 160 29,950 35 150 4-5 684 21 1,140 8- 13 27 1-6 12-3 934 Sihor Inland 180 32,265 51 180 35 632 23 1,400 8- 8 6-3 2-8 25- 2,043 Umrala Inland 220 31,824 55 160 4- 633 18 1,935 12- 9 6-1 2- 24-4 1,112 Gadhda Inland 200 24,027 89 120 5- 616 20 1,200 10- 7 5-5 2-8 28-7 1,388 Botad Inland 250 27,896 40 112 6-2 697 1 27,896 250- 1 40- •025 250- 1,423 Bhal Coast 160 5,361 20 8- 281 0 ... 0 • •• Totals and Means 2,780 363,817 652 125 8 1: 4-2 563 472 1: 771 1:5-5 201 1: 8 22 2-8: 1 1: 13 1,067 my present and subsequent remarks will be made quite clear ; and one can hardly help searching for some reasonable explanation of the phenomenon in question. In this place, I will only observe that fortuity or chance cau hardly be held responsible for such marks of method ; for even if amongst the several ways, in which leper- villages might be distributed in one area where they are numerous, it should happen that a focus, group and line be formed, it is not likely that a precisely similar arrangement should obtain in three or four other like areas adjoining ; aud still less is it probable that in all other places, where leper-villages are but few, the latter should still assume an identical disposition. Again, I have failed to detect such a concurrence of local phj-sical characters, as might serve to account for this distribution- method ; and, so far as I know, neither climatic nor telluric conditions—as general elevation, hills and valleys, water-course and currents, vegetation and cultivation, kinds of soil and substratum, &c.—are so invariably alike as they should be, upon any hypothesis of this kind which may be proposed as sufficiently applicable to the case. Also, if we enquire of general population-features, no clear light appears : for example, the mean density of population all over Bhaonagar beiug 125 8 persons per square mile, the coast-districts have near 140 (excepting the Bhal with its 35), aud the next adjoining districts