Lepers. By John Jackson. (Marshall Brothers. 3s. 6d. net.)— Mr.
Jackson is the organising secretary of the "Mission to Lepers in India and the East" ; for this position he has the qualification of a personal experience of the work which is probably unequalled in amount. Outside the -United Kingdom there is scarcely a region in the whole extent of the British Empire where the disease is not to be found. The work of the Mission is twofold,— the care of the affected, exercised in respect both of their physical and their spiritual condition, and the segregation of the children. Leprosy is contagious, though it is possible, by the exercise of care, to avoid the contagion ; but it is not hereditary. Hence the importance of separating the children. • The notification of the disease presents great difficulties. A sufferer is often able to conceal its presence, anyhow in the earlier stages, and may thus do incalculable mischief. Caste complicates the question, as it complicates everything. A leper practically loses caste, yet he will insist on separation from fellow-sufferers. Medical science has as yet found no cure. Still, 'there is an encouraging case in Miss Mary Reed. This devoted missionary was declared to be suffering by medical authority which must be regarded as conclusive. The disease, however, is at least arrested. But the conditions under which this result has been attained are quite out of the reach of the average sufferer. The work is of vast extent—in India alone there are hundreds of thousands of cases—it makes the strongest appeal to human sympathies, and it shows results of conspicuons success. Leprosy and famine afford the missionary opportunities which he does not find elsewhere.
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