28
NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCE. Number of known cases, 5.
No, of New Cases
Year.
of Leprosy recognised during the year,
Total No. of Cases known to be present in the Country/Colony in the year.
No. of Deaths from Leprosy during the year.
Estimated Population of the Country/Colony.
1897
1898
1
1899
2
2
Estimated popula- tion in 1908 :--
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
Kurune. gala. Puttalam Chilaw
270,058
1905
1906
28,492 83,473
This is the only
1907
1
1908
2
Year.
No. of cases of Leprosy recognised during the year.
UVA PROVINCE.
Number of known cases.
Total No. of cases
known to be present in the Country/Colony in the year (Uva Province).
1897
5
5
1898
7
7
1899
11
11
1900
3
1901
4
1902
14
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
No. of deaths from Leprosy during the year.
| | | | | | 12 | | 29 |||
Estimated popula-
tion of the Country/Colony (Uva Province).
164,541
166,445
166,452
188,961
186,528
186,801
189,585
190,671 191,643
190,817
190,584 190,994
information available.
Remarks.
No particulars avail-
able for 1905.
SABARAGAMUWA PROVINCE.
In the whole Province the recorded cases during each year are as follows:—
Year,
Total cases.
Total cases known to be present in Country.
No. of deaths from Leprosy during year.
Estimated Population.
29
A.
AN ANALYSIS OF 1,700 CASES OF LEPROSy treated in THE LEPER ASYLUM,
HENDALA.*
COMPILED BY C. HEYNSBERG, L.R.C.P. & S., Edin., L.F.P. & S., Glasgow.
I have always thought that an analysis of the cases of leprosy treated in the Hendala Leper Asylum, as obtained from the registers of that institution, will prove interesting. I am aware that no particular inference could be deduced from statistics taken from the asylum register, bearing reference to the incidence of the disease as it prevails in the island. For instance, one cannot draw the particular inference that because a large number of lepers hail from a particular town, as shown from the register of the asylum, that that town should be labelled the chief leper locality of Ceylon, for it is probable that for every one leper sent to the asylum from that locality there are two or three of them in their respective homes in other localities. Then there is the difficulty of locating the actual place in which the disease was acquired.
Although the largest number come from Colombo, it is by no means certain that every one of them contracted the disease here, for the poor, especially those afflicted with sores, seek to migrate to Colombo with the view of earning a livelihood or begging about from door to door. Every effort is now being made to register details of their birthplace and the duration of residence in each of the places the patient had visited; and if there is one place more than another that is observed to supply to this asylum a large number of lepers it would, I think, be interesting to study the conditions that exist in that particular locality favourable for the spread of that disease, conditions, chiefly peculiar to the place.
I have endeavoured to take a summary from the register of the Hendala Leper Asylum from the 1st December, 1863, to the 30th September, 1907. There have been 2,772 registered cases, but these include re-admissions of one and the same patient that is, a patient absconds, is discharged, leave is granted, or takes home isolation permit, and either comes back or is brought back by the police, weeks or months or years after. Such a case is re-admitted in the register-but carefully excluding such re-admission for the period of nearly 44 years, I have obtained par- ticulars of 1,700 cases which may be regarded as entirely new.
Locality.
It will be noticed from the map here (a map was shown at the meeting) that every province in the island has contributed to the leper asylum at Hendala its leper. The lepers from South India-217 in number-are of course not included in the map. The Western Province takes the lead with 1,019-i.e., nearly 60 per cent. of the total treated, including Southern Indian, or 70 per cent. of the island alone.
The Southern Province comes next with 268,
Sabaragamuwa with
Central with
57 54
Uva with
36
Eastern Province with
25
Northern with
12
North-Western with
11 and
1
1897
:
2
1898
2
1899
13
1000
7
1901
13
1902
15
1903
6
1904
11
1905
8
1906
3
1907
1908
5
89
2
Not available.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
EPELTIC.O. 885
20 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
North Central with only
The Eastern Province has a small leper asylum at Batticaloa.
As I mentioned before, it will be misguiding to mark any inference from statistics of the leper asylum, for the farther away from the vigilance of the police the less chance is there of the enforcement of the Leper Ordinance, and consequently there is a less number admitted into the asylum from these places.
The blackened areas in the map indicate the localities from which the patients came to the asylum.
It would appear at a glance that Colombo and its neighbourhood are darkened more than any other part of the island. From within the limits of the municipality of Colombo alone, out of the 1,700 cases under review 523 were admitted, or in other words nearly one-third of the total under review hailed from the city of Colombo.
*A paper read before the Ceylon branch of the British Medical Association on the 22nd February,
1908.