CAUSE OF LEPROSY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 20, 8 September 1911, Page 3

CAUSE OF LEPROSY.

As a result of prolonged research and experiments, independently con ducted (says the Johannesburg cor respondent of the Gentry News Agency), the conclusion is said to have been come to by Dr. Sands, rcsearcl medical officer of the Hobben Island Leper Asylum, and Dr. Lang, the principal medical,officer of Basutoland, that leprosy is introduced into the human system through the bites oi certain insects. It does not appeal to be proved that this means is t’u sole cause of infection, but boui doctors believe that a particular insect or bug is commonly responsible for tie spread of leprosy, as is the anopheles mosquito in the case of malaria, an;! tlie tsetse fly in the case of slecr.insickness. If this theory rcgardini the prevalence of the disease is ileiin itoly substantiated, it '.’ill go a lons way to explain the hitherto mizzibu fact that the doctors and nurses i. leper hospitals are commonly unaffocc cd, owing to the cl; anlir.oss of theii quarters. The expos iments conducted by the doctors shew that the leprosy fed insect retains the infection lor if days. Both doctors, who-;? sepuia tions as-e of tise highest, hope to pros; their theory absolutely by moans oexperiments' oss anthropoid apes. Botl are profoundly convinced that the origin of the scourge has been linalh traced.