Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-26
PENALTY OF DEBAUCHERY.
Two Disgusting Cases of LeDrOsy on
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Sfcken-
ing Condition INFINITELY De-
scribed-HOw they ere
Treated.

New York World: At window, in one
corner OF ward No. IA of Charity hospital, on
Blackwell's island, sit two strengthening
parties nearly the whole livelong day, whose
discolored features, swollen limbs and ban
daged feet show that they are afflicted with
disease happily not often met with here.
They are lepers. One of them is too sore to
move, save When it Is positively necessary.
The other, although much further advanced
in the disease and almost sure to waste away
within auotbor year, is at present as lively as
a cricket, but being loathed even by the worst
syphlitic patients In the same ward, keeps to
his corner anu sees no more of the outside
world than he can get by looking from the
window which commands view of the east
channel of the river, with the dingy brick walls
and black chimney stacks of Hunter s Point,
and a few Astoria villas in the distance.
These are the first lepers ever admitted to
this hospital, and they have been there only
a short time. One of them, Abraham Brown,
is a New Yorker by birth, and is ffty-fou
years old. The other, Emile Trenal, is ma
tive of Santiago de Cuba, and only nineteen
years old. Trenal has been afflicted about
FIVE years, and Is now thought to De IN the
last stages of the disease, having occasional
feyers. Brown has the disease in a more
acute form, and although 1t is less than two
wears since he first entered the Baltimore city
hospital, the disease has so invaded his whole
His hands and feet are almost black and COW
cred with ulcers; his fingers are enlarged to
nearly three times their former size, so that
the ends stand apart like the claws of fowl
His nails have fallen out. His face is not so
badly swollen, but his features have an ex-
preston of despair that makes it painful to
look at him. Nearly all his beard has fallen
off. The hair of his head is thin, dry
and lusterless, and his eyebrows are
perfectly bare. Around the iris of
each eye Is an lndlstlnct light
yellow ring, about twelfth of an inch in
width, and the peculiPr canine appearance
always noticeable in lepers is well marked.
Brown brought his leprosy from Cuba,
whittier he went IN 1855, remaining there
about nine years. His case seems to be more
deplorable for the reason that he is IN old
New Yorker; that he is an intelligent man !;
that he has led an upright life; but, above
all, from the fact that he feels so keenly that
he is an object of universal loathing. No
one cares to go near him, except the physi-
clans, who have not the slightest fear, being
satisfied that the disease is not, and never
was, contagious. The otherleper, Trenal, is
terrible object ID lcok upon. His face has
become so swollen as to be utterly unrecog-
nizable. The color of the skin is light yell
lowlsh red, glistening and semi transparent.
The end of the nose is dlstended to breadth
of fully two inches. The only hair on his
lace Is his ey6ldSucS Inc cyCuIOWs were tilC
first to disappear The curly HAIR of his fore
head has turned from a jet black to a
brick red, and on the back of his head,
especially around the edges, the hair has
turned purple and brown. On the crown of
the head it retains something like its original
color He has one of the brightest pair of
eyes ever seen in a mans head. They are
perfectly jet black over the iris, and with a
white corner that glistens like the whitest
polished ivory Trenal told the reporter that
he was nineteen years old. If he had said
fifty, he might have been believed all the
same, so far as the indications of his face
were concerned. The physicians have no
hopes of curing the lepers. They say that
although it has been claimed that lepers have
| been cured, no ell-authent;cated case OF
| cure has ever been recorded. ALI they can
do is to mitigate the disease as much as pos
sible, simply by watching the symptoms and
preventing complications and seeing that the
victlms suffer as little pain as possible. The
two patients now in the Charity hospital are
at present taking twelve drops each of chic
ride of barlum twice day e1d are kept clean
| by carbolated wash.