Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1882-09-13

me tall stem stands that held that fairest one,
And round it lovingly vine is twining
With morning. lories smiling in the sun.
--Harper's Weekly.
A HORRIBLE DISEASE.
Avisit to the Sandwich Island Lepsr'. HOSPITAL.
The Victims lnsensibilty to Pain. Hawaii,
Great Danger.
(From the San Francisco CALI
In learning something about the dread.
full leprosv scourge here, have accom-.
panied DR.. G.. L. Fitch, superintendent,
of tue leper hospital, and government
resident physician OF Honolulu, upon
several dramatically interesting, but not
altogether pleasant, visits. I first went
with hicl ccc morning to his official dis.
p,usary. There any afflicted natives OF
any other person may apply to him TO,
treatment, which is given free. A cot
tcse, set back from the street, has been
converted irto dispensary, containing
Dr.. Fltci's office and operating room. q
waitjug-room and a prescriptlon-room.
With my mind depressed by the pros
pec5 Of the misery, suffering and disease
L expected TO, witness there, it was with
something almost like a shock, when,
suddenly entering the dispensary yard,
I found that space crowded with natives,
Laughing, chatting, skylarking, all want
ing to be treated Tor some three
forrths of them leprosy in some stage.
l entered the operating-room and sat bv
DIR. Fitch's side while he consulted With.
prescribed for, or operated upon 256
persons, sixty OF them being new cases.
The other cases he previously had I'M
der treatment. In that number there
WAS one white boy. and one Chinaman,
all the others being natives. Of course.
al a great many cases the doctor would
simply order the patient, after few
questions, to present his prescription
bottle to be reflled. At the door Of the
room stood native policeman, who ad-
mitted one patient at time. By the
doctors side sat an interpreter, and
near him q clerk, who kept a
record of the cases. A patient en-
tered nodding, smiling, and prominently
displaying medicine bottle. He had
been there many times before, and knew
what to do. He occupied the seat in
front Of the doctor, replied glibly to the
interpreters questions, got his prescrip-
ton, gave aloha to us all, and departed.
The next who entered had never been
there before. He had heard that DR..
Fitch did not send all lepers to the dread
ieper settlement, and had come down to
Honolulu from some other island to be
treated for some strange pains. The in
terpreter told him to be seated. He was
smiling pleasantly, yet. thought, looked
from one to the ether in the room Appeal
ingly. The doctor critically examined
the patients face, wrists, and tongue.
before putting a question through
The interpreter. When two or three
Questions were put and answered, DR..
Fitch turned to me and said in English
''Poor fellow, he has had !eprosy, IN
mistakably, but breads to admit it.
Watch him now" As the docto spoke
to me he made slight motion to the in
serpreter, who held his hand in front,
but not very close, to the patients eyes.
AS he did So, the doctor took the patients
wrist and quickly jabbed & pin into some
spots slightly swollen, and where the
natural dark brown Of the skin had as
sumed copperish tinge. The blood
oozed from the tiny wounds, but the
patients eyes, into which 1 looked,
showed no consciousness of what had
been done.
Then the Interpreter held his hand
close to the eyes of the patient, into
whose cheeks, where the same copper
cclored swelling appeared, the doctor
again jabbed pin until the blood came.
yet the patient did not vince.
That roc fon fho
nervous symptom OF leprosy, the insen-
sitiyeness to touch and to pain. The
various paisies, of course, manifested
themselves without any such test. The
patient was prescribed for and told to
return in a week. Perhaps he NAV
never go to the leper settlement. Per-
haps his disease, though it can never be
cured, may DO so modified and relieved
that the patient can live out bis life
among his own people. He may now,
Cor DR.. Fitch has induced the govern
ment to establish a branch 1eper hos
pital i'll Honolulu, from whence patients
are sometimes allowed to return to their
families, instead Of being transported for
life. This directly conflicts With the
Jaw of the kingdom, which provides for
the life transportation to Molokai of all
iepers. Yet SO violent is the prejudice
among all natives against going them.
selves or having any friends or relatives
sent to the Molokai settlement that the
Fitch idea of branch settlement at
Honolulu was adopted and furthered
even by members of the royal family.
Her royal highness Lilinokalani, sister
to the king and regent during his alb
sence from the islands, was especially
active in the establishment of this branch
settlement. Although nominally this
branch is only temporary hospital for
lepers before their cases are finally
passed upon by the resident physician
Of the queens hospital, DR.. McKibben,
it really amounts to a substitute for
Molokai, and as such is greatly popular
with all natives. Then there is q pos
sibility Of release; escape is very easy;
friends can visit friends conveniently
and daily, and the grave-like isolation OF
Molokai is not part of the system.
The result is that, in or about Honolulu.
there are four hundred known lepers,
about one hundred Of whom are nomin-
ally confined in the branch. The further
result is that all the good work of the
stern law which provided for Molokai is
being undone, and the scourge of lep.
rosy, instead of being checked as Molokai
would have checked it, is being concen-
trated in the most pop ,lous settlement
of the islands, where it will grow and
thrive and spread as it never had a
chance before. Speaking of this new
departure and experimental DIR. Fitch's,
DR.. Emerson, who resided for some time
in the Molokai settlement, recently said:
Hawaii can not afford to retreat from
the advanced position she has taken on
this point. The population Of these
islands is too small to be trihed with and
risked in wild experiment. There is
danger it will be lost in the process.
Due consideration for the welfare of our
own non-leprous people and that of the
increasing number Of visitors, and those
who seek homes with us, make it incum-
bent upon us to cling to- the safe doc.
trine of contagion, which is also the
plainly -ta"ght doctrioe OF experience in
other lands. The necessity for isolation
is sad fact. Courage is needed in a ma