The Treatment of Dracunculus by Amarpatee

To the Editor, " Indian Medical Gazette." Sir,?I venture to send you a short note on the treatment of Dracunculas (guineaworm). I shall feel much obliged by your kindly publishing it in your widely circulated journal. It is from a very long time that the people of Dhar have been subject most frequently to Dracunculas, one of the obstinate and painful diseases. Nearly every house here has its member or members affected with this disease, especially in the rainy season. The disease generally attacks the lower extremities, but it has not been unfrequently found into the parts contained in the cavity of the mouth, such as tongue, palate, lips, &c. Also several private parts have not escaped from its attack. In some cases it has been found to remain for years together. I am not going to give here the astiolgy of the disease, as it would take too much of your space; however I may state in a few words that in places where there is no riverwater to use, but only tanks and large wells or (Bawarees as they are called here) to depend upon, and where the water is spoiled through mismanagement, this disease is most frequent. In these places the people wash their dirty cloths, clean their pots, and thus all sorts of dirt accumulate in the tanks or in the wells. Thereby the water is impregnated with minute organisms of Dracunculuo and such other diseases. The same water is used by the people, and thus the specific germs enter into different tissues through the minute openings of the skin and there develop or form themselves into long threads. In the city of Dhar there is no satisfactory management, as there ought to be, of the large wells (Bawarees). The waters thereof remain dirty, and the people of course use them through ignorance, and thereby fall victims to this obstinate disease. No specific remedy has yet been discovered for this disease by the Western Medical Science. In India people prescribe thousands of medicines, both external and internal, and the patients accordingly try them, Also there is a proverb for this?" Eka Naru, hajar Darii," which means there are a thousand medicines for one Dracunculus. In short, no specific cure has been found effective for the majority of cases. Being in charge of the Charitable Dispensary here I have tried during these last two years