LAXIS. Observers who have had occasion to study large numbers. of cases generally uphold this opinion.
in the Hawaiian Islands kissing and nose-rubbing, which are the native forms of salutation; cohabitation; and the reception of the secretion of lepers through abrasions of the skin are con sidered as causes of communication. The natives eat poi, or pai'ai, as well as other kinds of food, with their fingers, from the same dish. Worse than this, they ma ke the native drink, called "atm," by masticating ti or ki leaves, and depositing the pulp in an earthen jar, where it is allowed to ferment after which they drink it as an intoxicating beverage. The opinion generally pre vails among physieians and the more in telligent classes of people on the island that leprosy is very frequently com municated by sexual intercourse. There is no reason why this should not be the case, as we know that abrasions of the mucous membrane are among the earlier manifestations of the disease. The mos quito, house-fly, and other insects have been accused of being carriers of the dis ease. C. E. Davis (Albany Med. Annals, Feb., not).
Clinical evidence tends to demonstrate that leprosy is not hereditary in the true sense of the word (though a fcetus may be infected by a leprous parent and be leprous at birth), but that a proclivity to the disease is inherited by the off spring, and that exposure, in his case, will lead to its development.
In order to produce the contagion, it is necessary that the person contracting the disease be under the influence of certain special conditions, and surrounded by certain causes, and that his system be prepared beforehand to receive the lep rous germ; in other words, thc ground must be prepared for the planting of the seed.
"I have observed i»any cases in which the disease has passed from generation to generation, and have noticed that lep rosy, unlike most hereditary complaints, rarely disappears in one generation to reappear in the next. One of the pa tients being a leper, the son is in immi nent peril, even should he have been pro created before the appearance of the first symptoms in the parent." Flores (Satel
lite of the Annual, Nov., '87).
Parasitism does not necessarily involve the idea of contagion, and it would be an error to believe that every bacterial parasitic disease can be transmitted from the aiTected person to those who live with him. The latter must be in an especial condition of receptivity in order that con tagion may occur. Cornil (French Aead. of Med., Annual, '89).
In the Delta, situated two kilometres from the French Concession of Hanoi, and containing 400 inhabitants, almost one half are affected with leprosy. Eighty to 90 per cent. of the children of lepers contract the disease, which usually ap pears for the first time about the eleventh year. Editorial (Brit. Med. Jour., Jan. 3, '91).
Leprosy is a family disease, and chil dren of lepers more easily acquire leprosy by early infection. Arning (Archiv f. Derm. Syph., H. 1, '91).
Leprosy is certainly not hereditary, and can only be spoken of as possibly contagious. an absolute demonstration of infection from direct contact being still lacking. Possibility suggested that human beings are but temporary hosts of the parasite, it having possibly some extrahuman habitat. K. Grossman (I3rit. Med. Jour., Dec. 5, '96).
Leprosy, particularly as it occurs in Iceland, has increased somewhat in recent years. Of 119 cases examined, in 50 there was a history of the disease in the family. Of these, the father and mother were affected in 3; father alone in 15; mother alone in 4; sisters or brothers in 4; dis tant relatives in 14. Ehlers (Derm. Zeit., No. 3, '96).
Investigation of 1034 lepers. Of these 10 were born leprous; 21 contracted lep rosy from their parents before puberty. The disease skipped the first generation to attack the second in some, and the third in others. There were 15 that were born leprous, of healthy parents. R. S. Chew (Med. Age, Dec. 27, '98).