Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1873-11-21
LeprOsy In the Sandwich Islands.

LeprOSy IN the sandwich ISLANDS.
A CORRESPONDENT of the New York
Tribune, writing from Honolulu, gives an
account of his visit to Molokai, the noted
asylum for lepers, from which we extract
the following interesting facts:
By law of the kingdom, it is made the
duty of the Minister of the Interior, and
under him of the Board of Health, to ar
rest every one suspected of leprosy; and
If medical examination shows that he
has the disease, to seclude the leper upon
this part of Molokai. The disease, when
it is beyond its very earliest stage, is held
to be incurable. He who is sent to Molo-
kai, is therefore adjudged civilly dead.
His wife, upon application to the proper
court, is granted decree of absolute di-
vorce, and may marry again; his estate is
administered upon as though he were
dead. He is incapable of suing or being
sued; and his dealings with the world
thereafter are through and with the Board
of Health alone. In order that no doubt
full cases may be sent to Molokai, there is
is hospital at Kalihi, near Honolulu,
where the preliminary examinations are
made, and where DR.. Trousseau, the ply.
sician of the Board of Health, retains
people about whom he is uncertain.
The leper settlement at Molokai was
begun so long ago as 1865; but the law
demanding the seclusion of lepers was
not enforced under the late King, VINO is
believed to have been himself sufferer
from this disease, and who, at any rate, by
constantly granting exemptions, discour-
aged the officers of the law. Since the ac-
cession of the present King, however, it
has been rigidly enforced, and it is this
which has caused the sudden and great
outcry about leprosy, which has reached
even you in the United States, and which
has caused many people, it seems, to fear
to come to the islands, as though a for
eigner would be liable to catch the dis
ease. You must understand that the ma
tive people have no fear of the disease.
Until the accession of the present King
lepers were commonly kept in the houses
of their families ate, drank, smoked and
slept with their own people, and had their
wounds dressed at home. If the disease
were quickly or readily contagious, it
must have spread very rapidly in such
conditions; and that it did not spread
greatly or rapidly, is one of the best
proofs that it is not easily transmitted.
When remember how, among the native
people, whole family smokes out of the
same pipe, and sleeps together under the
same tapa, am surprised that so few
have tho disease.
And now, you will ask, what does a
leper look like? Well, in the first place,
he is not the leper of the Scriptures, nor
the disease at all like the disease which is
said to occur in China. Indeed, the poor
Chinese have been most unjustly accused
of bringing this disease to the islands
With the first ship.load of Chinese
brought to these islands came two lepers
> "white as snow" having that is to say, q
, disease very different from that which is
now called leprosy here. They were not
allowed TO land, but were sent back in
the ship which brought them out. The
Hawaiin leprosy, on the other hand, has
been known here for a quarter of q
century, and men died of it before the
first Chinese were brought hither. The
name Mai-Pakeh was given to it by an
accident; foreigner saying TO native
that he had disease such as they had in
China. There are but six Chinese in the
Molokai leper settlement, and there art
three white men there.
The leprosy of the islands is disease
of the blood, and not skin disease. Il
can be caught only, am assured, by con
tact of an abraded surface with the matter
of the leprous sore; and doubtless tht
habit of the people, of many smoking the
same pipe, has done much to disseminate
it. Its first noticeable signs are sligh
puftness under the eyes, and swelling o.
the lobes of the ears. To the practiceC
eyes of DR.. Trousseau, these signs were
apparent where Icould not perceive then
until he laid his finger on them. Mex
follow symptoms which vary greatly il
different individuals but marked sigr
is the retractiOn of the fingers, so that the
hand comes to resemble birds claw. In
some cases the face swells in ridges, leav
ing deep furrows between; and the ridges
are shiny and without feeling, so that &
pin may be stuck into one without giving
pain to the person. The features are thus
horribly deformed in some cases; saw
two or three young boys of IL who look
cd like old men of go. In some Older
men and women, the face was at first
sight revolving and baboon like; / say al
first sight, for on a second look the mild
sad eye redeemed the distorted features
it was as though the man was looking out
of a horrible mask. At later stage OF
the disease, these rugous swellings break
open into fostering sores; the nose and
even the eyes are blotted out, and the
body becomes putrid
In other cases the extremities are most
severely attacked. The fingers, after be.
ing drawn in like claws, begin to tester.
They do not seem to drop off, but rather
TO be absorbed, the nails following the
stumps down; and actually saw finger
nails on hand that had no fingers. The
nails were on the knuckles; the fingers
had all rotted away. The same process Of
decay goes on with the toes; in some
cases the whole foot had dropped away
and in many the hands and feet were
healed over, the fingers and toes having
dropped of. But the healing of the sore
is but temporary, the disease presently
breaks out again. Emaciation does no
seem to follow. l saw very few wasted
forms, and those only in the hospitals
and among the worst cases. There Rp
pears 10 be an astonishing tenaclty of life
and l was told they mostly choke Il
death, or fall into fever caused by swal
lowing the poison of their sores wheI
these attack the nose and throat, Thos,