296 REPORT OF THE LEPROSY COMMISSION:
five years or more means practically reducing the influence of
contagion to an absurdity. Six cases, therefore, must be sub-
tracted from the twenty-one instances of possible contagion
through eating and drinking with lepers. Besides, in one case
(Thayetmyo), the diagnosis was extremely doubtful, and in two
cases (Calcutta and Thayetmyo), the disease may be said to
have commenced in the two persons at the same time, as they
were affected within a year of each other. It is also very
questionable whether one of the cases recorded from Prome
can be cited with all fairness as an example of possible con-
tagion from these causes. Allowing, however, that these cases
are free from objection, the figures show that of two hundred
and five persons who exposed themselves to the risk of con-
tagion by eating and drinking with lepers, fifteen might be
claimed as exemplifying an assumed influence of contagion, or
7.3 per cent. These figures cannot be said to favour the
hypothesis of an infection through eating and drinking with
lepers, especially when it is remembered that 7.3 per cent. is
probably considerably above the actual ratio, which perhaps is
more nearly represented by 5 per cent., even assuming that the
spread of the disease among these people depends on conta-
gion only.
TABLE VI.
Observations on Lepers vaccinated at the Almora Asylum.
Eighty-six persons were vaccinated, and of these 40 successfully.
Of the 40 successful cases, 34 were anęsthetic lepers.
5 were mixed cases.
1 was tubercular.
Observations on Lepers vaccinated at the Almora Asylum.
In 31 patients the vesicle was normal.
2	"	"	"	"	purulent.
2	"	"	"	"	purulent and mixed with blood.
1	"	"	"	"	normal on one arm and purulent on the
					other.