Connecticut western news., 1873-11-14
What is LeprOsYs
A Visit te -the Settlement Of Lepers 1aA.
 the Sandwich IslaMds.s s&s

A Visit te -the Settlement voe Lspers sa
 the Sandwich Islansls.
 The lepfosy of the Sandwich Islands says correspondent of the N. Y Tribune, is a.disease of the blood ant not skin disease. It can be caugh only, am assured, by contact of al abraded surface with the matter of tn, leprous sore; and doubtless the habi of the people, of many smoking tn. same pipe, has done much to dissemi, nate 1t. Its first noticeable signs are slight pufiness under the eyes, and { swelling of the lobes of the ears. Te the practiced eyes of Dr. Trousseau l the attending physician, these signs were apparent where could not per ceive them until he laid his finger or them. Next follow symptoms whicl vary greatly in different individuals
 but marked sign is the retraction ot the fingers, so that the hand comes tc resemble birds claw. In some cases the faceswells in ridges, leaving deer furrows between; and these ridges are shiny and without feeling, so that @ pin may be stuck into one without giving 1 pain to the person. The features are thus horribly deformed in some cases l saw two young boys of 12 who look. ed like old men of 60. In some older men and women, the face was at first sight revolting and baboon-like say at first sight, for on second look the mild sad eye redeemed the distorted features it was as though the man was looking out of horrible mask. At a later stage of the disease these rugous swellings break open into fostering sores the nose and even the eyes are plotted out, and the body becomes
 In other cases the extremities are most severely attacked. The fingers, after being drawn in like claws, begin to fester. They do not seem to drop of, but rather to be absorbed, the nails following the stumps down and I ac- tually saw finger nails on Q hand that had no fingers. The nails were on the knuckles the fingers had all routed away. The same process of decay goes whole foot had dropped away; and in over, the fingers and toes having dropped of. But the healing of the sore is but temporary, the disease pres ently breaks out again. Emaciation does not seem to follow. saw very few wasted forms, and those only in the hospitals, and among the worst cases. There appears to be an astonishing te- nacity of life, and I was told they mostly choke to death, or fall into 8 fever caused by swallowing the poison of their sores when these attack the nose and throat. Those diseased give out soon very sickening edor, and I was much obliged to thoughtful man in the settlement, who commanded the lepers who had gathered together to hear an address from the Doctor to form to leeward of us. I expected to be sickened by the hospitals but these are so well kept, and are so easily ven- tilated by the help of the constantly blowing trade wind, that the odor was scarcely perceptible in them.
 You will perhaps ask how is the dis ease contracted. I doubt if any one yet knows definitely not from all I heard. I judge that there must be some degree of predisposition toward disease in the person to be contaminated. I believe l have Dr. Trousseau's leave to say, that the contact of wounded or abraded surface with the matter of leprous sore will convey the disease; this is of course inpoculation; and he seemed to think no other method of contamina- tion probable. was careful to provide myself with pair of gloves when I vis- ited the settlement to protect my hands in case should be invited to shake hands; but I noticed that the doctor fearlessly shook hands with some of the worst cases, even where hefngers were suppurating and wrapped in rags. There are several women on heislands, confirmed lepers, whose husbands are at home and sound; one, notably, where the husband is white man. On the other hand woman was pointed out to me, who had three husbands, each of whom in short time after marrying her became a leper. There are children, 1epers, whose parents are not lepers; and there are parents lepers whose children are at home and healthy.
 There are three white men on the island, lepers, two of them in a very bad state. So far as I could learn the particulars of their previous history, they had lived fagitiously loose lives such as must have corrupted their blood long before they became lepers. In some other cases of native lepers ] came upon similar histories; and while do not believe that in every case, or indeed perhaps in majority of cases, involves such career of vice, should say that this is certainly strongly | predisposing cause. And as to the danger of infection to foreign visitor, there is absolutely none, unless he should undertake to live in native fash. ion among the natives, smoking out oi their pipes. sleeping under their tapas, and eating their food with them {; and even in such an extreme case his risk Wuld be very slight now, so thorough. ly has the disease been "stamped out by the energetic action of the Board o1 Health. In short, there is no more risk of white resident or traveller catching leprosy in the Hawiian Islands than in the City or State of New York. l l have heard one reason why this dis
 ease has been more frequent in the last ten years. About that time the islands were visited by smallpox. This dis
 ease made terrible ravages, and the Government at once ordered the people to be vaccinated. There seems to be no doubt that the vaccine matter usec was often taken from persons not pre- viously in sound health this was prob ably unavoidable, but intelligent men long resident in the islands, believe that vaccination thus performed witt impure matter had bad effect upo1 the people, leaving traces of resulting 'corruption of their blood.
 | The Question of Silver.
 l. It was believed that the U. s, Treas