Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-04-13

a New York paper as follows;
viii Americans believe that leprosv, 'lhe
eldest daughter of death, exists on this CONT
nent? Though | had seen something to that
effect in the Appleton's Cyclopeda | for one
did not believe il before heard of Tracade.
This is a small village Oh the marshy fringe of
Gloucester county, New Brunswick, about
twenty-five miles south of the gulf of st. Law
renee. Landward, the eye rests on a dreary
monOtonous level, dotted here and there by
wretched fshermenS novels. Seward, the low
line of the horizon is broken by no sail, and
silence broods over the gloomy spread of waters.
Iracadie is of French origin, having been set
tied by Basque coOnsts soon after the peace of
Utrecht, early in the 18th century. 1t was poor
and miserable enough from the first, but Gods
chosen curse fell upon it, toward 1850, when a
vessel from the Levant was wrecked on its
shores, and bales of old clothes, teamng with
plague germs, were washed upon the sand. A
terrible pestience broke out and decimated three
of the surrounding villages, and, what was
worse, its seeds remained. From that day to
this, Tracadie has never been purged of the
malady.
There seems to be no reason to doubt that
this singular disease is the ancient leprosy, or
the elephautiaSis Gracorum. | will note some
of the strange symptoms of this Gracadie dis
temper. Three stages are distinguished. In
the first, the skin takes on morbid dead white
ness In the second, it becomes slightly yellow.
sometimes even assumes greenish tinge. Let
lis follow case through these different stages.
The patient begins by experiencing burning
fever and racking ague, stiffness and weakness
in the joints, heaviness in the chest, rushingS
of blood TO the head, and many other sensations
of lauguor. The most remarkable symptom,
however, is an utter inSenSibility to pain. The
leper can bear the prckng of a sharp instrn-
ment, such as a needle, or knife blade, into any
part of the body without feeling hurt Instances
are given of leperS burning hands and feet with
out knowing it, In one case it was not till the
smell of charred flesh had attracted the atten-
ton of third person that one of these unlor-
tunatc men was rescued from a fire into which
he had fallen. Gradually the white appearance
of the skin is replaced by yellowish spots, gen
orally the size ola dollar piece. These spots are
are at first separated from each other, but lit
tie by little they extend their circles, until,
touching together, they cover the whole body
with mantle of rottenneSs. Then follows
swelling of the limbs and the bloat-
ing of the body from head to foot, UNI
Ill finally the IN, being too much dstended,
bursts, and ulcers of the most disgusting sort
break out. The skin takes a shiny look, as if it
were vanished. The flesh between the thumb
and iorehnger Shrivels. The eXtremities of the
hands and feet grow very small, and in some
cases toes and fingers drop from their articula-
tons without pain to the sick man. The face is
generally very much swollen. The ears, chin
and cheeks are covered with tubercles, hard and
red the size of large pea. The eyes, half
drawn from their sockets, are afflicted with a
kind of cataract, which sometimes results in
total blindness. In this last stage the color OF
the skin is usually reddish or purDsh. The
end, of course, is with the internal organs. The
bronchial tubes become Distracted and gorged
with tuberclt, so that breathing finally becomes
a mere whistle and the patient is every moment
threatened with suftoCaton. The death stTug
gle is appalling beyond that of any other known
iii A 4 Nal HI
some of these cases declares that they surpasS
in horror anything he ever witnessed, and ready
as he is to fly to the relief of any form of human
misery, he prays God never to behold again the
death of leper.
One Of my first questions naturally was: Is
the disease contagious? And the answer, to my
great relief, was a negative. Under the same
roof the husband may have it, and the wife not,
or vice versa. One man had three wives. The
first two died of leprosy and the third was faint
ed by 1t, While he remained perfectly sound. In
one family two or three children are leprous;
the rest clean. Servants in the hospital, wash.
er-women, and Others have not suffered from
the malady. Tracadia being on the sea-board,
and its inhabitants being fishermen, several of
these, bearing the seeds of the malady have es-
capped to Halifax, Boston, and other places but
we have never heard that they communicated
the infection anywhere. Indeed the circum-
scription of the plague for a hundred years to
the barrow geographical limits of Iracadia, is
perhaps the most curious feature of this wonder
tul disease, and one quite apt to give rise TO the
superstitious suspicion of a curse from heaven.
Neither is the sickness at all hereditary. Lep-
rous parents produce hale children. The wife
of a certain Robichaud was covered with ulcers
from sole TO crown. She became the mother of
a daughter whom she nursed at her own breast.
Yet the girl grew up thoroughly clean, married,
and all her children are also clean.
Owing to the sparsely settled character of the
nrDVincp of New brunswick il until
1874 that the attention Of the authorities was
drawn to Tracadie. At that date a medical com
mission was appointed to investigate the disease
and report minutely upon it. Subsequently, the
provincial government ordered the establishment
OF lazar house, in the neighboring island of
Sheldrake, in the Mirawichi river In 1847,
however, this hospital was removed to the main
land, about have a mile from the parish church
OF Tracadie, in a vast enclosure set apart by the
government The buildings are of wood, all
communicating with each other. The hospital
itself is separate building, containing two
large halls appropriated to males; two other
halls above are devoted to females. Hamilton
Gordon, late governor of New Brunswick, in a
work entitled evidences Journeys" was at
tracted by the terrible problem Of Tracadie, and
ventured his opuion on the origin Of the scOurge.
He attributes it TO the fish diet OF the inhabi-
tants, who, in reality, feed almost wholly on
herring, potatoes and turnips their poverty
being so great that there are perhaps not ten
families which eat bread. This theory, however,
cannot hold, for there are villages all along the
coast of New Brunswick, even in close proxim-
ity to Tracadie, which, though they are equally
poor and underlcd, have never experienced the
attacks of the Insidous malady.
celebrated French physician, named La Bill
lois, living at Dalhousie, reported, after sixteen
months oil treatment, that he hal cured ten
cases by acting as for syphilihc disease but I'M
fortunately all these patients but one took to
their beds again and died soon afterward. The
Hotel Deu nuns, with their usual intelligence
and patience, are making series ofeXperments
tending 10 ascertain, if possible, the origin and
real nature of the disease. Until now they have
made only partial discoveries, and the chances
do not seem favorable to a satisfactory solution
of the problem.