The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1873-04-12
THE PACIFIC
Commercial AOOrrtlsrr.
APRIL Il.

supposed to possess Is a judge of who IL or Is not
a leper. but simply that his position and standing
among his c0unrymen, and the fact that he j. 4
member Of His Majety's Privy Council Of State,
will in some sort reconcile the unfortunate lepers
and their friends to the sometimes necessarily
severe action Of the Board. At the hospital for
temporary detention at Kalihi, the - suspects ;
are examined and either discharged or sent to
Molokai. If a person has merely been suspected
Of having the disease, and is eventually dis
charged from KaliIi as clean, it would seem on
all accounts both proper and necessary that his
detention should be as brief as possible in n place
where the lepers are coRgregated in such num-
hers, for every hour he remains there he is in
danger of really contracting the fell disease.
Thus, We presume, the examinations by the Board
Of those taken to tine temporary hospital, are
made as promptly and expeditiously as q proper
regard for thOrougbness will allow.
The case Of Kimo Kamai, who was on We'd
nesday last committed for trial on a charge of as
sault with a dangerous weapon with intent to
kill, is a somewhat peculiar one. If he shall be
found guilty Of the charge, the punishment pre-
scribed by law Is, "a fine not exceeding one
thousand dollars, and imprisonment at hard labor
not more than ten years " but if he is declared
to be a leper, he cannot be kept in any of our
jails or prisons. Will it be held that sending
to Molokai will be 81 imprisonment at hard
labor as contemplated by the law? And per-
haps again, the wellordered community at Ka-
laupapa, the majority of whose members are
probably as guiltless Of crime and as moral as
we Of Honolulu, would object to receiving on
equal terms with themselves a convicted criminal.
But perchance kamai may not be declared q
leper, after ALT seems not to be very definitely
settled as yet-and then it is very possible that
some troublesome questions may arise touching
personal rights under the Constitution. Let one
of our readers for instance, fancy himself sum
marily placed over at Kalihi as a " suspect
torn from his family without warning-not sure
that he really has leprOsy, but quite sure that he
is exposed while there to the contagion-is it not
possible that under these desperate circumstances
he might be driven to act as desperately as did
Kamai? \ cooler headed person might, instead
of shooting, have tried the virtues of a wit Of
haJeas corpus.
We have no desire, and do not apprehend that
we shall be accused of any intent, to place any
obstacles in the way of the authorities in dealing
with the leprOsy. But We really think that the
whole subject requires rather more care and
special legislation than it has yet received. The
arrest and deportation of any person . alleged to
be a lePer," ON the mere application of the Board
of Health : : or it's authorized agents. is indeed
a grave proceeding, in view of the provision of
fundamental law securing every person from an
unreasonable seizure of his person, and setting
forth that 'no warrant shall issue, but on prob
cause, supported by oath or affirmation"
But that the Government of this country is
in a vigorous course of action with regard
to n disease which, though until recent times I'M
known here, has during the last ten years made
terrible strides, no unprejudiced person can deny.
Careful examination lately instituted upon diff
ferent islands shows that the dreadful malady
exists in many places; and if, as is generally sup
posed, the heprd is readily contagious, these places
arc centres from which an apparently incurable
infection would rapidly spread, to the fatal settle
ment Of such questions as our national indepen1-
nce-the very existence in fact of the race. The
word leprosy has been a general term in history,
applied to several forms OF cutaneous and deeper
disease, the nature of which has caused the COM
plete isolation of their victims to be recognized
as a necessity; and the worst of these forms, the
and elePhantiasis of Syria and Northern
Africa, which have spread even among European
nations, arc those which we find developed in
our midst.
What are the predisposing causes of the malady,
is a much debated and hardly answered question.
Leprosy has, we believe, been found most preva-
among the poorly fed inhabitants of hot and
arid countries, especially in rainless districts, so
that its inducements may have been both INSULT
cient bodily nutriment and want of personal
cleanliness. Gregarious and communistic habits
seem to have afforded encouragement to the con-
tagious qualities of the disease. Among ourselves
these causes may have all variously prevailed, the
encouragement to contagion rather than the in
ducement to origin being very clear. Without
doubt the careful and experienced physicians to
our Government commits it's management
Of the national health will use every endeavor,
only to prevent the spread of this annihilating
disease, but to oppose all circumstances which
might afford it origin where it does not already
and, whether it be constitutional, or the
work of a minute acarus, or las it is said many
physical disorders are) of fungoid nature, to meet
the enemy with circumspection and decision.
For the unfortunate persons whom necessary
rigor has confined at Kalaupapa, too much pity
,annot be felt; and we are sure that the present
Government, among whom several members from
IN earnest and intelligent Monarch downwards
ire well known to entertain the most thorough
for what they consider the happiness
md good of the nation, will alleviate in every
possible manner the sad exile of these poor
Measures will, we hope, be taken to
How reasonably safe interviews between patients
md their friends, and such a course will do much
70 modify the popular feeling of instructive OBJ
to the imprisonment of individuals for
lught else but crime. BY permitting and assist
ng industrial occupation among those sufferers
who are able to work, the authorities may further
.often the hard sentence of virtual banisbment