Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-07-07
LEPROsY IN THE UNITED STATES.

The nightmare story Of Mr.. George Gable
of leper, secluded for years in house in
New Orleans turns out to be no novelist's
fancy, but only small part of the terrible
fact The annual report of the Louisiana
board of health for 1880, just issued, con.
tains detailed statement Of the progress oi
the Asiatic leprosy in that State during the
last century. It.was brought in 1880 to the
West Indies by the negro slaves, and thence
to Louisiana. In ITS this disease was 80
prevalent among the blacks. together with the
African elephantiasis, and another equally
horrible named yaws, peculiar to Guinea
negroes, that hospital for lepers was estab-
lished 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 heredi-
tary, 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 those families, when the dis.
ease showed itself, was deserted 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 ap-
pears, has no separate asylum for these incur.
able 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 extent
of this disease, even venturing into the death
ly swamps of the Lower Bayou Lafourche.
This whole district, he states, is several feet
lower than the turbid bayou, sloping back
into cypress swamps liable to constant over
flow from crevasses. The poor Creole inhab
itants live in lew huts surrounded by wet rice
fields, living upon fish and fish eating birds
They are separated from the rest of the world,
and have intermarried for generations. So
impregnated with disease is this remote re.
gion that some of the exploring party we're
struck down on reaching it with violent hem
orrhages and fever. Of all foul corners
of the world it is fttest for the disease most
dreaded by man since the beginning of the
world, to hide with its prey. Below Harapg's
canal President Jones found Asiatic leprosy
existing in different generations OF six fami.
lies Some of these wretched creatures have
been driven out from human habitation, and
are living apart in the swamps, dying of de-
cay. In some instances their flesh had be-
come as insensible as bone, and they were
able to handle fire with impunity. 1t was i'm.
pessihle to make correct estimate OF their
numbers, as rumor spread among them
that the searching party had come to carry
them off to an uninhabited island of the sea,
and they hid themselves, their friends, too,
refusing to tell their names or number.
In seltdefence, if for no more humane rea'
son, the people of Louisiana should provide
refuge where these accursed beings may be
isolated and sheltered. The disease is as in:
durable and as contagious as in the days of
Moses. The only other place where it ex-
lists in this continent, We believe, is in New
Brunswick, near the Bay Of Chaleur. The
lepers there are confined in hospital in
lonely spot known in the surrounding coun'
try as the Valley Of Hell.-New York 4r''
bune.