A Note on the Medical Ethnology of Tuberculosis in the Hills and Frontier Tracts of Assam

In attempting to introduce, for the first time, among primitive oriental peoples, a concept of tuberculosis based on scientific truth, the acceptance of which, even in the western world, is little more than fifty years old, it is plainly of interest, and of some importance, to endeavour to ascertain the nature of the beliefs regarding tuberculosis which are actually current among the primitive tribes themselves. Perhaps the most important single point to discover in such an enquiry is whether or not the disease, which is well recognized among all the principal tribes of Assam, is, apart from all the extraneous trappings of superstition and ignorance, recognized as communicable from one person to another. It is upon this one basic fact,