The Cecil Whig., 1880-05-29
THE LEPER'S HOME.

blood" iron is the remedy.
THE LEPER'S HOME.
A correspondent of the Philadelphia
Times has been visiting the Hospital de
San Lazaro, at Havana, the home of the
lepers. This ancient and terrible disease
finds many victims among the low caste
Cubans and the poverty stricken Chinese,
though it reaches its gaunt fingers into
better society sometimes. Leprosy is
either inherited or induced by poor food,
and especially by the eating of stale fish,
1t seems to be fish eaters disease, in
fact, seldom prevailing at any great dis
tances from the sea. Leprosy, as seen in
the West Indies is simply a dry rot. The
soul of a man is imprisoned in his body
long after he is, to all intents and pur-
poses, dead, and with all his mental fac
ulties intact, he must endure the gradual
falling apart of his earthly tenement,
awaiting with what philosophy he may
the hour when the cancerous agent shall
touch a vital point. This may not occur
for many years; it may happen on the
morrow The traditions of the hospital
do not point to any individual case of
cure whereby the patient may gain ever
so faint q hope. 1t might well be in
scribed over the portal: Let those who
enter here leave all hope behind" The
correspondent says:
There were five of us in the party
which drove out through the hot streets
toward the forbdding suburb facing the
sea-Doctor Burgess, an American resi-
dent physician and United States sanitary
officer; an invalid doctor from Hartford,
and three journalists. San Lazaro is
located Just where in more modern
city. we might look for big and pros
porous hotel. 1t looks out across few,
low houses upon the fair prospect of the
harbors mouth, and the sea sends its
unfettered waves straight in from the
northward dashing up the spray almost
to its walls. The place was founded by
philanthropic Spaniard within a trifle
of 200 years ago, and was restored in
1873. y liberal bequest of neighboring
property has always afforded an ample
revenue for its support, but within
short time the government has converted
4 portion of its property and, as one of
the officials of the institution remarked,
matters were ''not SO good" In form,
the hospital is large quadrangle, CEN
tering upon a chapel. a high wall di-
vides the wards of the men and the
women. We entered the male depart
ment first.
The leading popularity Of the patients
met lettering in the corridors was clay
like appearance of the skin and de-
preston or caving in of the nasal portion
of the face. The nostrils and lobes of
the ear were globular and holes were
formed over the eyebrows. The voices
of the men were nearly all changed,
sounding indistinct and painful. Patients
were hidden to approach, who hobbled
to us upon the stumps Of limbs long since
robbed, by the process of disease, of feet
and ankles, and they held out for our in
spection miserable remnants of arms,
shrivcled, warped and decayed, and yet
these arms found cunning enough to re-
move and grasp hats from matted heads
of hair when we rendered q few bits of
Spanish currency.
We saw in these lower corridors per-
haps forty men. Some were new corners,
upon whom the disease had put but few
marks as yet. Others We're almost ready
to go to the hopeless ward above. Here,
upon beds in a double row, were the YES
tiges of what had once been men
corpses which breathed i'll speechlcss
agony-through the long weeks and
which yet clung to life as though even
under tn sc conditions it was sweet to
exist. Tattered drapings hung from
these breathing skeletons, whose very
pose was the attitude of despair. No
picture of Dore's illustrative of the In
ferno could overdraw scene like this.
Enough of this. 1t was with relief that
we walked across Il pleasant garden,
planted with bananas and figs, and en-
tered the women S ward, under the guild
ance of Il fat but devout mother superior.
All respect to her and her staff of nuns,
who labor here among the hopeless,
pointing their fainting steps upward and
shaving through the heat of years to al
leviate the suiferings of those with whom
they are appointed to live. The scenes
amid the women were but repetition
of those across the rectangle. A few
were telling their beads, some sewed,
and all were neat in person and surround
ings to the last degree. \ bright little
boy ran toward us with an orange in
either hand. He was the pet of the hos
pital His mother was an inmate far
gone with the disease. He was not yet
old enough to know the fate that awaits
him. What pity this bright little chap
is not taken as subject for scientific ex-
pertinent Can it not be that there exists
some means of driving out the venom
and building up the system of the un-
happy progeny Of lepers with healthy
tissues?