An analysis of 118 cases of leprosy in the Tarntaran Asylum (Punjab), and On the arrest and cure of leprosy by the external and internal use of the gurjun and chaulmoogra oils / by J.C. Phillippo ; communicated to the Epidemiological Society of London, January 8, 1890, by Phineas S. Abraham.

  • Abraham, P. S. (Phineas Simon), 1847-1921.
Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An analysis of 118 cases of leprosy in the Tarntaran Asylum (Punjab), and On the arrest and cure of leprosy by the external and internal use of the gurjun and chaulmoogra oils / by J.C. Phillippo ; communicated to the Epidemiological Society of London, January 8, 1890, by Phineas S. Abraham. 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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    2i ON THE ARREST AND CURE OF LEPROSY period of fish eating as others who show no symptom of the disease. It is true that more leprosy is to be seen in this as in most other countries on the sea-coast, but this is, I think. Largely due to the fact that the poorer class of sufferers flock to the cities and towns, which are generally there situated, for the sake of the charity to be obtained in these larger centres of population. Tliat it is both hereditary and contagious I firmly believe, but it never affects a whole family, and will sometimes skip a whole generation. The contagion is by no means active, for the healthy members may be in daily intercourse with the diseased, without contracting it; only occasionally does it happen that one or more take it, and these may, perhaps, have less to do with the diseased member than the others. I know of a family in which two sous had the disease and died of it, and another had incipient symptoms arrested by gurjun oil; the other members in daily atteudance had shown no symptoms, whilst the wife of one who belongs to a perfectly healthy family, and who only occasionally came in contact with them, has now ulnar nerve paralysis, with shrinking of the interossei and ansesthetic patches. This and other instances of a similar kind lead me to believe that there must be some constitutional predisposition—I should say of a strumous character. This view I took years ago in my replies to Gavin Milroy's questions on the subject, men- tioning the case of an English family resident here of a strumous constitution, in which an uncle developed the disease, and died years before his niece, who was not born at the time, also developed it. The treatment of the disease is, however, my subject on this occasion, and I shall now proceed with a short account, which will, I hope, be of interest. Gurjun oil was first brought to my notice some twenty years ago in a paper published in the Edinburgh Medical Journal, by the surgeon in charge of the penal establishment in the Andaman Islands. At that very time a case came under my observation of a lad who belonged to a family with considerable hereditary history of the disease. The initial sympton was a deep punched-out ulcer at the bottom of one foot, looking like a perforating ulcer, and insensible to pain —a very common commencement of tubercular leprosy. Not being able to get any gurjun oil in England, I sent to Singapore for some, and made use of it, but with very small success, as I left the district shortly after, and could not follow up the treatment.