The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1878-03-30
TIE PACIEEC
SATURDAY Y. MARCH 30.
Leprosy in San Francisco.

NNR1O0J 1@ NoA
The following is from a recent issue of the San
Francisco Examiner
The regular meeting of the San Francisco Medical
Society was held at Red Mems Hall, On Tuesday
evening. After the usual business had been trans
acted, DIR. Blach, city physician, exhibited a China
man taken from the city prison, having the leprosy.
He then read tie following paper on the subject:
l propose, this evening, to call your attention to a
Well-marked case Of leprosy (ElephdntidslS GTdc-
corum), in a Chinese resident of this city. The
patients name is Yon Gown; age "a years; is mar
ried, and has three children in China. His occu-
patton in China was that of a merchant. He was
born in that part Of China known as 1.-The Seven
Oaks, a low marshy country. He came TO Cali
fornia two years ago. The disease commenced in
China, and on both sides of the face at once. He
never bad any wounds on the face; never had
syphilis; never knew of the disease in his family.
There is no great amount Of pain In the tumors,
except upon pressure. His general health is good.
He does not think it is contagious.
A CHINESE PHYSICIANS STATEMENT.
The following is a statement by DR.. Loo Chang, a
Chinese physician 1.-The name of the disease in
Chinese is Sang ToOng or Fat Foong; known in
English as leprosy. | have seen a number Of cases
of the disease in China, but not many here. 1t is
most common in Low, marshy districts, ard is caused
in my opinion, from miasmata and unhealthy food.
By unhealthy food, | mean food of a poor quality,
tainted, etc. When the disease first commence it
can be cured, but after two or three years, as a
general thing, it is incurable; L should judge the
man to have had the disease about four years. 1t is
not considered contagious, except in sleeping or
eating with the person affected. The treatment is
not well defined evel in China; a certain sea weed
is used, being made into a decoctiOn by being boiled
with water; arsenic is also used. The bowels should
be kept open TO carry off the poisoned blood. In
regard to his diet, give no salt food, no b~read-espe-
cially that made with yeast. The disease is most
common among the POOR, but is sometimes found
among the rich. 1t is, therefore, considered by US
to originate from exposure, poor food, and want Of
care and cleanliness. 1t assumes on the face OF the
n tIa NJ ano tbon tIH,f Eua- 1Ilornnf f0nD,n
There are some forms of leprosy that have no swell
ling, but consist of bright silver scales, which cover
the entire body. This form l consider very con-
tagious. do not remember to have seen any of it
in California;
OTHER STATEMENTS.
On inquiry among other Chinese, | find that this
statement of the Chinese physician is in the main
correct; but they do not all agree as to its being
contagious. 1t is said among them that the disease
dies out after a third generation. The earliest men,
ton of this disease in our literature is found in the
Book of Leviticus. 1t is there described as an erup-
ton of the skin. At one time, from the second to
the seventh century, it assumed q form of great
violence, and only declined from the fifteenth to the
seventeenth centuries. 1t still exists in different
parts of the world-in Africa, Asia Minor, Japan,
etc. Its progress is usually slow, sometimes taking
years for its pronounced development. The disease,
as 1t presents itself in this patient, is elephantiGSiS
graccOrum tuberculoSa. The skin of the forehead
and eyebrows is greatly thickened, and folded upon
themselves, and often suggests the face of O lion.
oNASt" OBA-OA NANA5 "1NhOA5
that the disease is not contagious, but under certain
circumstances and conditions it may be conveyed
from one person to another. | find from the Customs
Gazette, published at Shanghai, that at TakoW "a
dry district) there was admitted during 1864 but
one case of leprosy, while at Henkow (malarial dis
trict), in the same time "a cases were admitted to
the hospital. From all the facts gathered, 1 con-
slider the disease nOa-cOntGgiOuS, except under
certain conditions. In California, l can readily con-
ceive that it might become endemic in the great
valleys OF the interior from an over-crowded popula-
ton of a low order, living upon poor food, and
exposure to miasmatic influences. Upon the coast
Ranges, or the higher mountains, 1 think it is i'm
possible.
DR.. Stivers said that the Cinnamon in the cell
would not have this one near them, but would put
him in a corner by himself; they say if you touch a
leper you will catch the disease.
DR.. lrlvas said that he had seen numbers of people
with the leprosy in Mexico, and he thought it was
contagious.
Dr.. II. NJ. Fiske said there was a leper settlement
in Amador county, and that the Chinese there be-
leved it to be contagious.
In addition to the above we may refer to the par
ticulars of a remarkable case published in the
Courier de San Francisco, and which the .NerS
Letter calls a marvellous cure, that of Madame
Theron, who was attacked while living in Peru with
a disease analogous to elephantiasis and leprosy, but
without the distinctive characteristics of either of
these terrible malades. Mr.. Henry Thompson,
Attorney, of San Francisco, a native of these
islands, certified in an affidavit that the alterations
upon the body of the patient were of the same
nature as those peculiar to the lepers here. The
was treated by DR.. Bechtinger, formerly of
Maui, who succeeded in performing a perfect cure.
AS the disease resembied leprosy SO closely, the case
a good deal of attention from the doctors
who were cognizant of it, and the facts attending it
are substantiated by the names of a number of we'll
ladies and gentlemen.