The present asylum was completed in 1877, and the inmates from Montego Bay and Healthshire were transferred that year.
A new law (17 of 1879) was introduced, repealing that of 1865, and an attempt was made to deal with the vagrant nomadic leper, whose period of detention by order of a magistrate was not to exceed 28 days. diseases of leprosy were treated, and it is well for the colony that leprosy, if In addition, so-called kindred infectious, is only so to a limited extent, as the conditions which obtained were such as to make the asylum a prime focus of infection.
See Report 1899, and reference to treatment of Framboesia and other diseases. The introduction of the present law (Law 15 of 1896) was due to the represen- tations made by my predecessor, Dr. J. F. Donovan, as to the necessity of dealing with the itinerant destitute leper and those who engaged in various occupations or trades, and now compulsory segregation is enforced on the indigent class.
The law was published in the Transactions of the Berlin Leprosy Conference, 1897.
A synopsis of admissions from the 1st August, 1898, to the 31st March, 1909, showing the salient features of each case has been compiled from my case book, and is attached in the Appendix.*
ADMISSIONS, JAMAICA LEPER Asylum.
Parish.
Males.
Females.
Total.
St. Catherine
16
10
26
Manchester
13
13
26
Clarendon
16
6
22
Kingston and Port Royal
9
18
Trelawny
11
St. Mary's
8
St. Ann's
8
St. Elizabeth
8
3
4
St. James
Bt. Andrew
St. Thomas
Portland
Hanover
Westmoreland
FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
Colon
Central America
St. Thomas D.W.I.
India
Haiti
4|
---| BG-WRCOLE
13
12
11
9
8
6
2
10
7
3
1
1
1
1
117
64
181
23
A.-Number of known cases of Leprosy.--No record has been kept by me of the cases of leprosy in the Lambs River District. Since becoming the Medical Officer of the District no case of leprosy, public or private, has come to me for treatment. I thus cannot give accurately the number of cases of leprosy formerly or at present existing in the Lambs River District.
B-1. The disease is confined to one single spot in the whole district under my charge. This is the Seaford Town locality. There has always been a number of cases of leprosy in this place for the past ten years to my knowledge, and possibly much longer.
2. The leprosy patients in this Seaford Town district are Germans of pure blood, a colony of artisans of that nation having been brought hither from some German State by Lord Seaford as an industrial experiment. With a few very
rare exceptions they have refused to intermarry or cohabit with the negroes. I am not aware that there is any Semitic strain in their blood either. They have lost their language and a few of their national customs, but they still preserve all the essential characteristics of their race. They are industrious, sober, and vigorous, but the district where they live, while very fertile, is at the bottom of a valley, and is hot, humid, and depressing. Drainage is difficult. There is much standing water, decaying vegetable matter, The soil is a yielding red earth. bogs, steaming morasses, and the quantities of insects which these conditions and the absence of powerful wind currents favour. standard of living and of morality than their black neighbours, they are not an While maintaining a much higher enlightened community, and their domestic arrangements are not of the most whole- Personal hygiene is neglected; a rather unknown salt fish in brine and dry salt fish (imported from Newfoundland, where leprosy is also prevalent) form, with starch foods, the main part of their diet. Fresh fish also, brought up by hucksters from the coast, 15 miles distant, and more or less soiled by careless handling, stale, or tainted is constantly being sold among them.
some.
C-Notification of Cases.-1. No cases have been officially brought to my notice by either a patient, the friend of a patient, the Inspector of Poor, or the constabulary. I recently advised that one case should be sent to the Leper's Home at Spanish Town, but the persons concerned refused to entertain the proposal, and with some spirit questioned the right of any authority whatever to forcibly segregate a leper, provided his family were willing to attend to him and keep him out of sight, and this is what is being done in this Seaford Town colony. The relations of the lepers attend their cases themselves and keep them out of sight. If a surmise based wholly upon hearsay is of any value I should say that there might be between twenty and thirty lepers at present afflicted with the disease in that place.
The Superintending Medical Officer,
Kingston.
I have, &c.,
E. H. B. STAFFORD,
District Medical Officer.
From 1st August, 1898, to 31st March, 1909.
W. D. NEISH,
Medical Superintendent.
SIR,
Lambs River District,
Medical Office, 20th May, 1909.
I SUBMIT herewith the information asked for in the form respecting leprosy as it applies to the Lambs River Medical District.
LEEWARD ISLANDS: ANTIGUA.
The Presidency consists of the Islands of Antigua, Barbuda, Redonda. Antigua, 108 square miles; Barbuda, 62 square miles; and Redonda, 1 square mile. The cases of leprosy are evenly distributed. There are no facts bearing on the possible relation on the distribution of cases. black, coloured, European, and a few Chinese.
The population consists of
• Not printed.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
5
6
C.O. 885
20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO