Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1883-04-14
HONOLULU, H. l., APRIL IA, 1888.

to live with her and shows no signs Of the dis
ease. A man at the leper settlement has bur
led three wives who all died with leprosy. He
is now married 10 his fourth and she 3 a leper.
In addition, he is notorious consort of leprous
women Yet he shows no sign of leprosy. A
man on Kauai, married to leprous woman,
had syphilis badly, but continued to live with
his wife. Their grown daughters wore the
mothers clothes yet she alone shows leprosy,
being an inmate of the leper hospital now A
native member of the last legislature married
his wife thirteen years ago; one year after their
marriage, leprosy appeared on the wife and al
though they have maintained their marriage
relations he has no sign of leprosy about him.
| know Of at least five other cases where white
men live with native women who are lepers
In some of these five these relations have been
maintained for as long period as seven years.
Yet not one Of these white men shows any signs
of leprosy.
Now while the records of the leper settle
ment are not entirely correct they are approx
mately so. From them / gather that only
twenty-eight of those who have been permitted
to go there to nurse sick friends have after
wards been sen, there as lepers. There have
been hundreds of these nurses allowed to reside
there at different times, Yet, SO far as the
books show, only the small number of twenty
eight have contracted the disease Syphilis is
only contagious for certain period and lep-
rosy is stage Of the disease which has passed
the contagious point in the majority of cases.
Syphilis like typhoid fever, small pox and
similar diseases has stage Of incubation, Of
activity, and Of decline. Its period of incuba
ton is usually twenty-six days; its period Of
greatest activity in white man at the present
era is usually not much over two years. Van
Buren, and Keyes, two noted authors on syphi-
lis say, Practically what the physician wants
to know is this, during what time are symp-
toms liable to recur before that long latent
period may be expected, which is to terminate
all manifestations of disease, and in which the
patient is certainly well, probably cured.
Roughly and on the average this last question
may be answered by saying after about two
and half years, or, to be safe regarding
marriage, one year after the disappearance Of
the last syphilitic symptoms, treatment having
been continuously kept up and being continued
until after the birth Of the first child"
Leprosy rarely appears before seven years
after contracting syphilis in some cases, how
ever, it does appear earlier. In one white
man here, it appeared in four months after the
primary symptom Of syphilis; and, in another,
in ten months, So, while in a vast majority Of
cases, leprosy is neither contagious or infec-
tious, these two cases might have been SO.
And this partially explains why fully believe
in segregation.
Another fact, well known to physicians is,
that after syphilis has lost its contagious in.
fictitious character it may still be transmitted to
posterity and this is certainly reason enough
for the strictest kind Of segregation. Again,
in quite number Of cases Of leprosy among
the natives, have seen wellmaIked mucous
patchesand tuberclesatt the corners Of the mouth
and both these last symptoms, are recognized as
contagious. Right here l am met with the
objection "why does not leprosy abound in
other places, where syphilis is prevalent p
Perhaps can make this clear. Pasteur has
discovered tina, by taking drop Of blood from
an animal affected by splenic fever and putting
i, into plate Of bouillon, that in few hours
the bouillon will be swarming with the pecu
liar germs which produces this disease. Now
take drop from the first plate and put it into
fresh plate Of bouion. Again it will swarm
with the same germs. But the germs are muci
less active than in the first plate. Continue
this experiment and, by number of fesi
lransplantations. the germs come to have yer!
ow grade Of vitality, and after time perios