The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1878-08-21
DOMINION LAZARETIO.

ADOMINION LAZARETIO.
How the Curse of Leprosy Was Brought
TO the s1ospltable Fishermen of "1ndy
Ray, n. T..
Fiftv miles from here, among the
marshes of the Gloucester shore, lies the
ancient French Village of Tracadie, with
its pest-house for lepers. The Gulf
Of St. Lawrence contains many a spot
where the weird legions Of wreck and
murder alright the habitant, but Ira
cadie is 1.-The living curse" The village,
struggling, ill-omened looking settle
ment, contains about one hundred houses,
scattered along each side of main
street. They are chiefly fshermens
cabins, with matched roofs and walls
garish from whitewash. The parish
church stands on a brow looking oyer
the beach, and hard by the lazaretto, an
ungainly structure of gray stone surround
ed by lawn. The country roundabout
is naked and unlnhabited. The waves,
rolling over shallow strand, keep up g
monotoneus sobbing, which the cries of
the gull and curlew overhead do not re-
ieve. Except the fishermen, who play
their calling in quiet, timid way, as
though afraid to disturb the sufferers on
the HILL there is no sign of human life.
Occasionally two or three Of the Hotel
Dieu nuns, who have charge of the pa
tients, or Trappist monk, who helps the
sisters in their awful mission, fits up
and down the street; and at rare intervals
a traveller comes along, but, like the
prudent Levite, ''passing by on the other
SIDE"
The lazaretto was built in 1S47. Prior
to that the lepers were Gagged in wooden
house on Sheldrake island, in the Mira
MICH river. The disease has been the
subject Of consideration for several medi-
cal commissions appointed by the New
Brunswick Government, all of which fix
its first appearance in this Province in
1853, although they differ widely as to its
true nature. In that year a French trad
ing vessel, the Indienne, which had just
come off the Levant trade. ran into Windy
Bay with a general cargo for fur barter.
While entering the bay the vessel was
caught in sudden gale and stranded,
going to pieces during the night. The
fishermen came to aid the crew and well
coined them to their cabins. Among the
goods shipped by the Indenne while in
the Mediterranean was bale of old
clothes bought from a Smyrna dealer.
These the crew distributed to their hosts,
and thus came the plague. On the 24th
Of December the first case appeared. a
sanity missionary to whom the patient
thc. LON If hon do
was puzzled with the symptoms, and it
was not until the following spring, when
the region of Beaubair was filled with
plague, that the stricken people knew il
was leprosy. j.. -.....- .--.....
Father Menier, priest who had tray
eled in the East, discovered it, anc
though he urged stringent quarantine
measures, the sufferers fled far and wide
vainly hoping to leave the blight behind
Some went to Caraquet and others t.
Prince Edward Islands, but most of then
fastened to the western shore, and, hap
less pioneers, founded the settlement o
Pockmouche, Niguameche and Tracadie
where the disease still fingers. In thos'
DAYS there were few settlers and few doc
tors in this country, and the leper wa
left to die uncarel-for He was not, il
truth, compelled, as in the time of Moses
to ''put covering upon his upper lii
and cry, 'Unclean, unclean.'" but ne wa
forced to Gdwell alone; without tn
camp shall his habitation be-" For NOR
than sixty years the victims were seized
suffered their unspeakable misery, ane
died thus, in their solitude; for it wa
not until 1918 that the Provincial author
tiles had money enough to be humane
Wooden sbanties were then put up 70
the reception of the afflicted, and as
rule those who had recovered from tn
disease were employed as nurses. It wa
not easy to find other nurses. In 1916
DR.. La Billois, of Dalhousie, N. B., at
tended the Tracadie suffers and rendere
heroic service. In 1874, a medical com
mission built the refuge on Sheldrake Is
land, and, three years later, the Prcvir
cial Government built the Tracadie Pes
House. !.
s There is now an average Of forty pa
tients there. Some say it is the Mosai
leprosy, others that it is the elephantias1
of the Arabs. It is not hereditary; th
parents may be clean and their ofsprin
unclean. Neither is it contagious in til
abstract sense, for a husband may b
come a leper and his wife waiting upo
him, may escape. The Tracadie patient
q however, all think they caught their di'
ease from sleeping in unclean beds {
wearing a leper's clothing. The patier
first suffers from lassitude and sleepless
ness; then comes fever, which is succeed
ed by intense numbness Of the limb
The skin, at first unnaturally white,
covered with yellowish spots. These ru