Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-12-04
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 a 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 a 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 ;ncurable. He who is sent to MoIo-
kai, is therefore adjudged c~iviIly dead.
His wife, upon application to the proper
court, is granted a 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 a hospital at kalihi, near Honolulu,
where the preliminary examinations are
made, and where DR.. TrOusseau, the ply
stefan 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 a sufferer
from this disease, and who, at any rate, by
constantly granting exemptions, discour-
aged the officers OF the law. Since the &C.
cession OF the present King, however, it
has been rigidly enforced, and it is this
which has caused the sudden and great
0I1tnrV "a hnIIt lnnrncX VIII N Inr ra,1ln1
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, a whole family smokes out of the
same pipe, and sleeps together under the
same tapa, am surprised that so few
nave the 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.
Win the first ship-load of Chinese
brought to these islands came two lepers
white as snow" having that is to say, a
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
HaWalln leprosy, on the other hand, has
been known here for a quarter of a
century, and men died of it before the
hrst Chinese We're brought hither. The
name Mal-Pakeh was given to it by an
accident; a foreigner saving to a native
mat he had a disease such as they had in
China. There are but six Chinese in the
Molokal leper settlement, and there are
three white men there.
The leprosy Of the islands is a disease
OF the blood, and not a 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 the
habit OF the people, of many smoking the
same pipe, has lone much to disseminate
1t. Its first noticeable signs are a SLIGHT
puttness under the eyes, and a swelling of
the lobes OF the ears. To the practiced
eyes OF DIR. Irousseau, these signs were
apparent where could not perceive them