LEPROSY AND BAD FISH .
Sur,—In connection with the review in a recent issue of the life of Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson by Sir, H. H. Basliford, I think some of your readers will be interested to knoW.of an unexpected support for the former's "obstinate opinion " that leprosy is caused by badly-cured fish. Fifty years ago I was living in Busoga, separated from Uganda by an arm of the great Lake Victoria. At the end of this arm were the Ripon Falls—the start of the River Nile on its long journey of some 2,oco miles to Egypt and the Mediterranean. I built the first little reed house overlooking the fallshexagonal in shape in order to get every view. It was just a. small holiday house. The Ripon Falls in them- selves are not ver; impressive, but the surroundings are very fine. The drop is not great, but the volume of water is very considerable. Here could be seen any day a number of large fish that were actually able to leap up the falls in spite of the weight and force of water. The interest- ing thing about this fish was (0 the natives did not like it, and said quite definitely that it was a cause of" leprosy " ; and (2) I have never known a fish go Sad so quickly. I tried taking it lack to my, mission station some two or these hours' canoe journey. It was bad and uneatable by midday. There was no other fish of that part like it.—Yours, &c.,
Previous page
