Distribution of Leprosy. 133
that only about two-and-three-quarter millions
expose themselves to the possible risk of acquir-
ing leprosy by means of vaccination.
(c) To be infected these children must have been vac-
cinated from a leper child. Now leprosy is found
in about one out of two thousand individuals of
all ages, and it is certainly not found as often as
in one out of one hundred thousand cases at an
infantile period.
(d) Lastly, the error of using lymph from a leprous
child, especially as the disease is easily recog-
nised, must occur extremely seldom.
The chances, therefore, of leprosy being spread in this
manner must be very small indeed, if at all conceivable. Vac-
cination is becoming more popular every year, and yet leprosy
has not increased, but rather decreased since the last enumera-
tion: that "recrudescence," assumed by many, has not taken
place, so far as the census figures show. The latter, however,
have always been employed as evidence by those who con-
demned vaccination or clamoured for compulsory segregation.
Lastly, reference must be made to some important evidence
which has lately become public. Surgeon-Major Pringle, in a
paper on "Vaccination and Leprosy" read before the late
Congress of Hygiene and Demography, stated that for a period
of twenty years from 1864 to 1884, when Deputy Sanitary
Commissioner in the North-Western Provinces, he had spent five
months each year in camp in the hill districts of Kumaun and
British Garhwal. He estimated that during these twenty years
he had vaccinated about two million persons, but he had never
seen a case of leprosy traceable to vaccination, and had never
heard of its happening, though natives of those districts were
ready with objections and reasons for not having their children
vaccinated.
Dr. Pringle also stated that during his tenure of office he
was in the habit at the end of the hot weather of bringing