The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1881-06-23
LEpRosY IN THE UNITED STATES.
New York Tribune.


The nightmare story of Mr.. George Ca
BILE of a leper secluded for years in a house
in New Orleans turns out to be no novel
lists fancy, but only small part of the
terrible fact The annual report of the
Louisiana board of health for 1880, just
issued, contains a detailed statement of
the progress Of the Asiatic leprosy in that
state during the last century. It was
brought in 1850 to the West Indies by the
negro slaves, and thence to Louisiana. In
1918 this disease was so prevalent among
the blacks, together with the African ele-
phantiasis, and another equally horrible,
named yaws. peculiar to Guinea negroes,
that "a hospital was established at New Or
leans. At the present time the majority
of lepers in that city are whites, of French,
German, and Russian extraction. This dis
ease seems to be hereditary, and certain
families known to be infected with it are
stunned as corpses would be, could they
walk and move and spread abroad the
contagion of dea th. The mother of one
of these families, when the disease show
ed itself, was deserted by husband and
children, and was nursed by young girl
who now is a victim to it. An Italian
Catholic priest who attended cases of lep-
rosy in the Charity hospital is now dying
of it in the same house New Orleans it
appears, has no separate asylum for these
incurable patients, and they are received
into the Charity hospital and placed in the
crowded wards to scatter death.
The president of the board of health has
made personal investigation into the ex-
tent of this disease, even venturing into
the deadly swamps Of the Lower Bayou La
fourche. This whole district, he states. is
several feet lower than the turbid bayou
Il 1io1
constant overflow from crevasses. The
poor Creole inhabitants live in low huts
surrounded by wet rice-fields, living upon
fish and fish-eating birds. They are sepa-
rated from the rest of the world. and have
intermarried for generations. So impreg
mated with disease is this remote region
that some of the exploring party were
struck down On reaching it with violent
hemorrhages and fever. OF all foul cor
ners of the world it is the fittest for the
disease most dreaded by man since the be
ginning of the world to hide with its prey.
Below Harang's canal President Jones
found Asiatic leprosy existing in different
generations of six families, Some
of these wretched creatures have
been driven out from human habi-
tation, and are living apart in the swamps,
dying of decay. In some instances their
flesh had become as insensible as bone, and
they were able to handle fire with impuni-
ty. 1t was impossible to make a correct
estimate Of their numbers, as a rumor
spread among them that the searching party
had come to carry them off to an uninhab-
tied island of the sea. and they hid them
selves, their friends, too, refusing TO tell
their names or number.
In self-defence, if for no more humane
reason, the people of Louisiana should pro-
vide refuge where these accursed beings
may be isolated and sheltered. The dis
ease 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 in New Brunswick, near the Bay of
Chaleur the lepers there are confined in a
hospital in a lonely spot known in the sur
country as the Valley of He'll.