[Illustration: MALE LEPERS. _p. 123._] Being a firm believer in the hereditary transmission of all ailments--or the tendency to them, both mental and physical--I have traced _direct_ transmission in at least thirty per cent. of the cases coming under my observation. The disease is doubtless due, like most others, to the presence of a _bacillus_ in the blood, and if there be not direct transmission of this from parent to child, its effects are undoubtedly hereditary. These, however, are points which I need not discuss, for they will be specially considered by the Leprosy Commissioners. Acting on the strength of my own convictions as to the transmissibility and communicability of leprosy, I established the Dehra Dun Asylum on the principle already noted, and it has answered so far admirably; all its inmates living as happily as they can, under their unfortunate conditions, and ending their existence contentedly! I have had, of course, ample opportunity of studying the nature of the disease, and its effects on the different organs of the body, and in the many examinations I have made, _post mortem_, I can testify that not a single organ in the whole body is exempt from the attacks and inroads of this dire and loathsome malady. It invades the brain, spinal nerves, the eyes, tongue and throat, the lungs, the liver, and other digestive organs. In addition, as is generally known, it maims and deforms the external parts of the body in a manner too revolting to describe. It is painful to witness the amount of deplorable suffering some of these creatures endure. True it is that many feel but little pain--one of the forms of the disease producing _anæsthesia_, or insensibility of the parts affected; but this is the case in a few only. The majority suffer in variously painful degrees, according to the organ or part implicated, and it is a mistake to think that their sufferings are little. Many, in the earlier forms of the ailment, lose their sense of sight, smell and taste, and when their lungs or throat is attacked (a common form), their agonies are dreadfully distressing and painful to behold. The inroads of the disease are slow and gradual, which makes it all the more trying, and the painful and lingering death to which most are doomed is a condition that one dreads to dwell on.