Leprosy in India : a report / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham.

  • Lewis, T. R. (Timothy Richards), 1841-1886.
Date:
1877
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Leprosy in India : a report / by T.R. Lewis and D.D. Cunningham. 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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    present more or less tuberculated, nodular projections of various sizes and outline. The existence of the two forms in one person forms the third, mixed variety, of some The subordinate classes of Lepro- ™*i.p„„ „_ Virplinw «nvc sy-the Mixed and Eruptive. Wiueib, UUt, V irCUOW SajS, no clear line of demarcation exists between the nervous and cutaneous forms of leprosy. We hardly think it necessary, therefore, to adopt this term as distinctive of any particular form of the disease, seeing that at best the terms Anaesthetic and Tuberculated are only used relatively according as the one or other fea- ture characterises the phase of the malady most prominently. At the same time, in some instances the two symptoms are so equally evident, that it is difficult or impossible to classify them satisfactorily, and in such a case the designation mixed variety may be conveniently resorted to. Por convenience of description, a fourth term may be adopted, as suggested by Dr. Vandyke Carter, to designate those cases in which the eruption forms the most prominent charac- teristic. These two may be looked upon as varieties. The eruption may constitute a conspicuous feature in either the ansesthetic or the tuberculated form. The terms applied by the various populations of India to indicate the disease are not The names by which Leprosy is gQ numcrOUS aS might haVC bcCn known all over India. , , • i V expected, considermg the num- ber of languages and dialects there are in the country. Although the works on medicine which the hakeems, or native practitioners, consult, recognise at least eighteen va- rieties of the disease, the ordinary native only recognises one or two general terms for the complaint. This seems to be due chiefly to the fact that the principal ancient treatises on medicine in this country were written in Sanskrit—a circumstance which accounts for the general uniformity in the terms adopted for the leading diseases in the different provinces. Indeed, it is probable tliat, with regard to leprosy, most natives in any part of India would under- stand what was referred to from the Sanskrit K^isMha, or some of its vernacular forms, such as Kushta (Teligu and Tamil) Kuth or Kut (pronounced Koot) or Kud (Bengali, Uriya and Assamese) and Eut or Korh (Hindi, Punjabi and Marhatti). By way of euphemism the disease is also commonly indicated by the Sanskrit terms Boga (ver- nacular Bog pronounced Bogue) and Vyddhi (vernacular