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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    miles distant, in the small native state of Poonch. They were orphans and practically blind, as they all suffered from a form of eye disease common among Indian children. They had been directed to the hospital while still some forty miles away, and arrived holding each other’s hands—the only way in which they could keep together. They were each operated upon in a short time with the following results :—The girl is now able to act as cook for the hospital, and is thus earning her living ; one boy has so far recovered his sight that he had, on the day I saw him, commenced to learn to read in the mission school; the other boy had had one eye operated on, and could see so well that a few weeks before he had gone off by himself to their village, and returned that very morning, just in time to be photographed with his brother and sister. The growing appreciation with which the hospital is regarded will be seen from the number of visits which have steadily increased, till, in the eight weeks of 1901 up to February 24, they amounted to 4,887, of which 2,028 were of new patients. In addition to this the limited accommodation for in-patients is constantly overtaxed. When it is remembered that all these receive some Christian teaching, it will be seen what a valuable work is being done. To the direct benefits must be added the incalculable influence of such an agency in preparing the people of all the villages of the district to receive the Gospel, or at least to listen with infinitely less prejudice to its messengers.