The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1881-08-12
LEPROSY.
Extent Of this Terrible Disease in the
United States.

Extent Of this Terrible Disease In the
United States.
The nightmare story of Mr.. George
Cable of leper secluded for years in
house in New Orleans, says a New York
paper, turns out to be no novelist's
fancy, but only small part Of the ter
rible fact. The annual report Of the
Louisiana board of health for 1880, con-
tains a detailed statement Of the pro-
gress of the Asiatic leprosy in that State
during the last century. 1t was brought
in 1850 to the West Indies by the ne
gro slaves, and thence to Louisiana, In
177S this disease was so prevalent among
the blacks, together with the African
elephaniiasis, and another equally hor-
rible, named yaws, peculiar to Guinea
negroes, that a hospital for lepers was
established in New Orleans. At the
present time the majority Of lepers in
that city are found TO be whites of
French, German and Russian extraction.
The disease seems to be hereditary, and
certain families are known to be infected
by it and are Stunned as corpses would
be, could they walk and move and
spread about the contagion of death.
The mother of one of these families,
when the disease showed itself, was de
serted by husband and children, and
nursed until her death by young girl
who now is victim to it. An Italian
Catholic priest who attended cases of
leprosy in the Charity hospital is now
dying of it in the same house. New
Orleans, it appears, has no separate asy-
lum for these incurable patients, and
they are received into the Charity hos
pital and placed in the crowded wards
to scatter death.
The president of the board of health
has made a personal investigation into
the extent of this disease even ventur-
ing into the deathly swamps of the
lower Bayou Lafourche. This whole
district, he states, is several feet lower
than the turbid bayou, sloping back in
to cypress swamps liable to constant
overflow from crevasses. The poor
Creole inhabitants live in low huts sur
rounded by wet rice fields, living upon
fish and fsh-eating birds. They are
separated from the rest of the world,
and have intermarried for generations
So impregnated with disease is this re-
mote region that some of the exploring
party were struck down on reaching it
with violent hemorrhages and fever.
OF all foul corners of the world it is the
fittest for the disease most dreaded by
man since the beginning of the world
to hide with its prey. Below Harang's
canal President Jones found Asiatic lep-
rosy existing in different generations of
six families Some of these wretched
creatures have been driven out from hu-
man habitation, and are living apart in
the swamps, dying of decay. In some
instances their flesh had become as in
sensible as bone, and they were able to
handle fire with impunity. 1t was i'm
possible to make correct estimate of
their numbers, as rumor spread among
them that the searching party had come
to carry them of to an uninhabited island
of the sea, and they hid themselves,
their friends, too, refusing to tell their
names or number.
In self-defence, if for no more hui
name reason, the people of Louisiana
should provide refuge where these
accursed beings may be isolated and
heltered. The disease is as incurable
and as contagious as in the days of
Moses. The only other place where it
exists in this continent, We believe, is
New Brunswick, near the bay of Cha
leur; the lepers there ore confined In a
hospital in a lonely spot known in the
surrounding country as the Valley Of
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