In leper-land : being a record of my tour of 7,000 miles among Indian lepers including some notes on missions and an account of eleven days with Miss Mary Reed and her lepers / by John Jackson.

  • Jackson, John, 1853-1917.
Date:
[1901]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: In leper-land : being a record of my tour of 7,000 miles among Indian lepers including some notes on missions and an account of eleven days with Miss Mary Reed and her lepers / by John Jackson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Some of those who erroneously assume that leprosy, in all cases, speedily disfigures or mutilates its victims, have expressed surprise at the non-develop¬ ment (or slow development) of the disease in Miss Reed’s case. But this arrestment is by no means a rare occurrence. We have already referred to one (Mussuwa, at Almora) who, after being a leper for over forty years, died rather of old age than of leprosy. I myself saw many cases in which the development of the disease had been arrested for years, even after mutilation had begun. I recall a nice, healthy-looking woman in the Purulia Asylum, who, so far as her face and general appearance were concerned, would never have been suspected of being a leper. On my inquiring how the disease affected her, I was shown her hands, on which there was not one complete finger; and yet I was assured by the missionary and the caretaker that the disease had made no perceptible progress during the eight years she had been an inmate. Many other similar cases could be cited. On this point I may quote the testimony of Dr. Dease, who, as a Medical Missionary, was in charge of the Chandag Asylum for some years prior to Miss Reed’s appointment. In a conversation I had with him in Bareilly he said he had himself known the progress of leprosy to be arrested for years by good diet and healthy conditions of life. And these deterrents have no doubt had their effect in Miss Reed’s case. Not only is the bracing climate of Chandag Heights unfavourable to the development of the disease, but