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1927.

LATHYRISM IN THE GILGIT AGENCY : MACKENZIE.

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scanty notes as I have made on the same subject. I was Agency Surgeon in Gilgit from 1921 to 1924, but it was only during my last year there that I became aware of the existence of lathyrism in the Agency.

T H E INDIAN M E D . complete recovery. The general health rem ed good. On examination there was more or less marked spasticity of both thighs and legs. .Wasting was not noticeable. Knee jerks as a rule were exaggerated. Sensation, normal. Bladder and rectum functioned normally. A specimen of gharash which I sent to Major K. N. Chopra, J.M.S., of the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine was identified by him as Laihyrus sativas. These notes, so far as they go, correspond in the main with Colonel McCarrison's observations at Mtamelas. The villages where I saw my cases were in Nagar territory between Chalt and Nik, some 25 miles from Matamdas. I was led to believe that the condition was known throughout the Agency as liable to occur in newly cultivated areas. The immunity of females is generally accepted and appears remarkable. Unfortunately I had no further opportunity of investigating the condition before leaving the Agency.
[Note.Lieut.-Col. R. McCarrison, I.M.S., to whom Major Mackenzie's notes have been submitted, writes. " Major Mackenzie's notes on lathyrism in Gilgit are of interest. They emphasize a point, referred to in my note on lathyrism in the Gilgit Agency, which may be of scientific interest ; the belief that garash (Laihyrus sativas) is only harmful when grown on virgin and barren soil. The other point of great interest, to which I also referred, is the peculiar sex incidence of the condition. For the rest, the condition as reported by Major Mackenzie is identical with ' lathyrism ' as I have known it in Gilgit."EDITOR, /. M. C]

LATHYRISM IN THE GILGIT AGENCY.


/> By LOUIS H. L. MACKENZIE,

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MAJOR, I.M.S.,
C'a>il Surgeon, Fiazara.

LIEUT.-COL. R. MCCARRISON'S " Notes on Lathyriam in the Gilgit Agency " published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, Viol. XIV, No. 2, last October prompt me to send in such

The manner of my " discovery " was as follows : A member of the Gilgit scouts when at Gilgit for annual training was referred to hospital for examination as to his fitness for service. I was on tour at the time, but the case was mentioned to me on my return. The Assistant Surgeon told me that the man was pronounced unfit on account of paralysis of the legs, the symptoms being, he stated, those of a well known local disease supposed to be incurable. Further enquiries elicited the following information concerning a condition tvhich is fairly widespread and popularly recognized but, owing to its reputation of being incurable, is never in my experience seen among hospital patients. The essential feature of the disease is spastic paralysis of the legs. It occurs in malesadults and childrenbut not in women, and is attributed to the eating of gharash. The condition occurs only in those whose diet consists of gliarash, grown in newly cultivated land, the same plant after a few years' cultivation apparently losing its power to cause the disease. Sufferers were stated never to recover but never to die from any state attributable to the condition. The victims are known locally as gharashlang, i.e., lame from gharash. I visited some villages where the condition was reported to be common and saw all the available sufferers. The disease I found on enquiry, is attributed to a diet of gharash alone. If mixed with wheat, etc., it is said that no symptoms occur. Further, it was alleged that the disease occurs only when the gharash is grown on virgin soil, and the liability to it, even with an exclusively gharash diet, dies out in the course of a few years. All the cases I sawabout a dozenwere males, and the age of onset varied from 5 to 55 years. In mosf cases the onset was sudden, in other cases there was a vague history of some preliminary symptoms. Some improvement was usually said to occur spontaneously in the course of years, but never

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