THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 341

Downing Street,
28th August, 1862.

SIR,—A suggestion having been made by
the Governor-in-Chief of the Windward
Islands, that Reports should be obtained
from the West Indian Colonies, and collated
by some professional body in this country,
respecting the character and progress of the
disease of Leprosy, I was disposed to think
that advantage would result from the adoption
of Governor Walker's suggestion, and with
this view I requested the assistance of the
College of Physicians, in order to the subject
being put in a right train. The College
have expressed their willingness to collate,
digest, and report upon any information
which may be collected, and they desire that
it should be sought, not from the West Indian
Colonies only, but from all the Colonial
Possessions of the Crown.

I transmit to you, therefore, the accom-
panying series of Interrogatories, which have
been framed by a Committee of the College.

I have to instruct you to forward these
Interrogatories to the principal Medical
Officers in the Colony under your govern-
ment, and to any other Medical men of ability
and experience whom you may find willing
to lend their co-operation, with a request that
they will furnish every information in their
power in answer to them.

I have, &c.,
NEWCASTLE.

Governor Sir George Grey,
&c., &c., &c.

Dr. Pitman to Sir F. Rogers.

Royal College of Physicians,
London, S.W.,
9th August, 1862.

SIR,—I have the honor to forward a series
of Interrogatories, framed with a view to
collect information concerning the disease of
Leprosy, by a Committee appointed by the
College for that purpose, in compliance with
a request of His Grace the Duke of Newcastle,
conveyed in your letter of July 1st.

I am instructed to request that copies of
the Interrogatories, when printed, be for-
warded to the College to be sent to those
members of the profession in this country,
or elsewhere, who may be able to furnish
information to the Committee of the College
upon the subject in question.

(Signed) HENRY A. PITMAN, M.D.,
Registrar.

Royal College of Physicians,
24th July, 1862.

The Committee appointed by the College
on June 14th, "to frame Interrogatories, with
a view to obtain Reports from the West
India Colonies on the subject of Leprosy,"
have prepared the following series.

As the disease is known to exist, not only
in many foreign countries, but also in various
British Colonies in the East, and elsewhere,
the Committee are of opinion that it is very
desirable that the Interrogatories should be
sent to all the Colonies of the Empire.

NOTE.—It is requested that all replies may be
written on foolscap paper, and on one side only of the
leaf.

INTERROGATORIES.

1. Is Leprosy known in the Colony of
   ? If so, be pleased briefly to
   describe it as it occurs there.

a. Are there several different forms or
outward manifestations of Leprosy? If so,
by what names are they respectively known?

b. Are these several forms, in your opinion,
only varieties of one common morbid state?
or are they specifically distinct diseases,
having no affinity with each other?

c. Please to enumerate succinctly the
more obvious and distinguishing characters
of each form of Leprosy which you have seen.

2. At what age does the disease generally
   manifest itself? and what are usually the
   earliest symptoms observable?

3. At what period of life, and in within what
   time, does the disease usually attain its full
   development? And at what period of life,
   and after what time, does it usually prove
   fatal?

4. Is the disease more frequent in one sex
   than in the other?—if so, in what propor-
   tion?

5. Is it more frequent among certain races?
   —among the white, the coloured, or the black
   population?—and in what relative propor-
   tions?

6. In what condition of society is the
   disease of most frequent occurrence,—and
   what are the circumstances which seem to
   favour its development in individuals, or in
   groups of individuals?

Please to enumerate these circumstances
under the following heads:—

a. The characters of the place or district
where the disease most frequently occurs, in
respect of its being urban or rural—on the
sea-coast, or inland—low, damp, and malarial,
or hilly and dry.

b. The sanitary condition of the dwellings,
and of their immediate neighbourhood.

c. The habits of life, as to personal clean-
liness, or otherwise.

d. The ordinary diet and general way of
living.

e. The occupation or employment.

7. What conditions or circumstances of life
   seem to accelerate or aggravate the disease
   when it has once manifested itself in an
   individual?

8. Does the disease appear often to be
   hereditary?

Have you known instances where one
member only of a family has been affected,
while all the other members remained free
from any trace of it?

9. Have you reason to believe that Leprosy
   is in any way dependent on or connected with
   Syphilis, Yaws, or any other disease?