The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-01-23
A Case Of LeprOsy in Chicago.

A Case Of LeprOsy in Chicago.
SEVERAL physicians witnessed. yes
terday what was agreeable to them,
but the contrary to one with sensi-
tive stomach. The object was leper,
and he was put on exhibition at the
rooms of the Medical Press Association
by DIR. j. N. Hyde for the benefit of his
professional brethren. The patient, a
man forty-two years of age, was born
in Oswego, N. Y, of French-Dutch
parents, and has been a sailor. All his
relatives are healthy. When sixteen
years of age he ran away from home
and made a two-years' whaling voyage
in the Okhotsk Seas, and, during this
cruise, stopped fourteen or fifteen
weeks at Honolulu, on Oahu. one of
the Sandwich Islands. On his next
cruise he deserted his ship at Honolulu
and remained there seven months.
Shipping on another whaler, he spent
five months at Honolulu in three years.
He returned to the United States in
1861, and enlisted in the Fourth New
Hampshire Volunteers whence he was
transferred in 1862, under the general
order, to the navy, serving on the Min
nesota, and afterward the Queen. In
1868 he was sent to the Asiatic Squad
ron, and while in the Iroquois, touched
at several China ports. In 1864 he was
on board the TuscarOra, cruising in the
West Indies. Subsequently, until a
year or so ago, he was attached to the
Atlantic Squadron. The disease made
its first appearance in 1874, and has
| gradually increased in virulence. His
| present condition is this: The general
color of his skin is yellowish bronze.
All over his body are whitish patches,
which are totally insensitive to touch
and to the deep prick of lancet, there
being an entire loss of sensation in the
legs up to the knees, in the larger part
of his hands, and in nearly all of the
trunk. His eyelashes and eyebrows are
gone, his sight is impaired, his toe and
finger nails are changed, and his lower
limbs covered with large crusted ul-
GERS, covered with black scabs. The
patches were preceded by the forma-
ton of large blisters ON the surface.
He walks with painful limp, but,
when dressed, no one would imagine
he was a victim of this terrible malady,
or of any other, except for the color of
his skin and the loss of his eyelashes
and eyebrows. He has what is
called the anHsthetic leprosy, the other
kind being tubercular, which shows it.
self by the development of tubercules
about the face.
The disease is absolutely incurable,
and its treatment is hygenic-good air,
nutritious food, baths, etc. This pa
tient sleeps well and digests his food,
but he has the characteristic apathetic
look. His sufferings at present are
more mental than physical, since, as
stated, 4 large portion of his body is
insensible. He walked along Clark
street, yesterday, by no means warmly
clad, and he wouldn't have knewn it
was winter if he hadn't seen the snow
on the ground. His friends and rela-
tives have abandoned him, and, recent
ly, he has lived on the charity of DIR.
Hyde and some other physicians. He
sleeps at the cheap lodging houses,
prudently keeping his own counsel.
Although people would run if aware of
his presence, there is really no danger,
as the disease is neither hereditary nor
contagious. The best evidence of this
is that leprous husbands have had
healthy children, and their wives were
never tainted. Its seat is largely in the
nerves. As to the origin of the disease,
that is unknown. 1t has been attrib-
uted to the air, the soil, fish, diet, etc.
The latest theory is that of DIR. Mon
roe, who believes absence of salt is the
solution. He argues from the presence
of leprosy in India, where the tax on
salt is so high that the natives canuot
get it. But this patient of DIR. Hyde's
has breathed the salt air and lived on
salt meats for twenty years. Its dura-
ton is from fourteen to twenty years,
so this man has at least ten years of in
creasing misery to 60 through before
death results from exhaustion. He
wishes now heAwas dead.
This is the fifth recorded case in Chi
cago. Two were reported by Scandi-
navian physician many years ago, a
third was admitted to the County Hos
pital, and the fourth exhibited to the
Chicago Medical Society in 1868 by DIR.
HolmbOe, Surgeon of the General Hos
pital at Bergen, Norway, who made a
tour throughout the Northwestern
States for the purpose of investigating
the prevalence of the disease among
the Norwegian emigrants, he having
found one victim in this city.
There are perhaps 100 lepers in the
United States, reports having been
made of their presence in South Caro-
lima, Louisiana, Maryland, New York,
California (Chinese), Minnesota and
Illinois, thcrc being one other in this
State. There are four cases in Nor
way, Mimi, and two in Minneapolis.
While not apparently cured by coming
to this country, it is the opinion Of
Profs. Beck and Danielson that the
Norwegian lepers would have been
worse had they remained at home. So
with the patient whose history is given
above had he staid in the Sandwich
Islands. If he continues in Chicago he
will have to 60 to the Poor-House, for
he is incapable of sustaining himself.
In a recent lecture regarding the case,
DIR. Hyde advocated the establishment
of Il hospital for incurables of all kinds,
where they could live in comparative
comfort until the end Chicago
Tribune.