The Bhau Daji treatment of leprosy / by Stanley Boyd.

  • Boyd, James Stanley Newton, 1856-1916.
Date:
[1893]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Bhau Daji treatment of leprosy / by Stanley Boyd. 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.

    7/8 (page 7)
    I cannot close without saying a few words upon the fact that Bhau Daji did not publish his mode of treatment, a fact which caused it to be freely said that he concealed it for his own advantage. I do not know when he began to use kauti oil as his sole remedy, but not until 1868 do we find public notice taken of his cures. Counting this year in, he had five years (1868-72) in which he was able to work at the matter, not too long one would think, especially when the result of Koch's premature publication is remembered. It is stated in the obituary notice in the Times of India, June 5, 1874 (both the pro- prietor and editor knew Bhau Daji), that, while ill, he was most anxious that his manuscripts should be collected and got ready for publication. Evidence is easily obtainable that in the majority of instances his leper patients were treated gratuitously, and that often he supported or assisted them during the treatment, conduct which is entirely in keeping with the generosity and public spirit for which he was remarkable. My informant knew Bhau Daji as well, probably, as a European ever knew a native, and could hardly have failed to detect, had they existed, the meanness and baseness which were attri- buted to him; nor is it at all likely that a native of low character would have been honoured by the friendship of Sir Bartle Frere and many of the best Europeans then resident in Bombay. Bhau Daji certainly had no need to seek honour as the vendor of a secret remedy, for there have been few men in our profession of whom more, or even so much, could have been said as we find in the obituary notice above referred to. [The records of other cases, Nos. V. to XVII., do not appear to us sufficiently complete to be worth publishing in detail. In all of them great improvement is spoken of, and in two, almost complete recovery.—Ei>.]