Prize essays on leprosy / Thompson, Cantlie.

  • New Sydenham Society.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prize essays on leprosy / Thompson, Cantlie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    the former is 80 miles farther south, and on Elsey Creek. The tribal territory to which this leper belonged probably inclnded all these stations. Mr. Giles wrote as follows : I knew the black fellow ever since I came here in 1879. He was not an old man, but, I should say, about thirty-five. When I first knew him, as far as I could see, there was nothing wrong with him ; but about four years afterwards his toes rotted off both feet; in fact, half the instep was gone, and then his fingers came off, all but the thumb on each hand—and I think one finger was left I had a good idea he was a leper from the time his toes began to drop off; .... as he could not get about much I used to feed him; .... he never complained of any pain, nor do I think he felt any ; he was a jolly fellow, rather He undoubtedly belonged to this country (the Katherine Eiver), and had never been to the north coast I have seen no other so advanced; but if there are any signs by which a layman could identify the disease, and you let me know, I will pay more attention to toeless blacks. The duration of this case seems to have been about ten years; but Mr. Giles surmised that his speedy death after his removal to Leper Island, Port Darwin, was due to fright and banishment. Dr. Wood was confident that this abori- ginal, said by Mr. Giles never to have been to the north coast, in reality could not possibly have reached it, con- sidering the many different tribes which intervened between the Katherine and the coast.1 Yet it is not certain that a Chinese leper could not have reached him; but if a Chinese wandered so far south he must have been known at one or other of the two stations, a point on which Mr. Giles was silent.2 Other evidence refers to quite a different part of the territoi'y. It was collected by Mr. Eeginald Stow, a solicitor, and reached me through Dr. Wood. Mr. Stow's notice of the peculiar physiognomy occasionally presented by the sufferers, as well as his remarks in general, stamp him an acute observer: I was on the East Alligator Eiver in June, 1893, and stayed with the buffalo hunters three days.3 Among the aboriginals camped beside us was 1 But compare Mr. Mayhew's letter below. 2 Unless he first died or was murdered in the bush. Such are the doubts which attach to this kind of inquiry. 3 One of the earliest attempts to effect a settlement hereabouts was made in an expedition to which part of a native regiment from India was at- tached. The buffaloes referred to are wild descendants of stock then