Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-04-07
The Leper Hospital, Tracadie, New
Brunswick.

1t is not easy to give an idea OF the
impression produced by the first sight
of the lepers. Strong men have tainted
ard turned sick at the sight of such
a~fliction. The ward first visited is that
of the men. Here there are exemplified
various stages of the disease. To an in
experienced eye some OF these men look
we'll and strong; but alas! they will tell
you that the deadly symptoms are there,
either in discoloration of the skin, swell.
ings, contracted joints, or some other
fatal sign. One of the surest indications
seems to be the contraction of the mus
Giles between the thumb and index fin
ger; this is said to be a popularity Of
the disease. The flesh becomes desti-
tute of feeling, is insensible to burns or
cuts; in these cases there is great inter-
nal suffering. There is now in the hos
pital a man whose aim in life seems to
have been higher than that of his COM
panions in misfortune, and whose hab-
its are such that the offensive nature of
the disease causes him intense mental
agony. He is in appearance strong and
active, and his manner most progresses
ing. He takes pleasure in gardening
and reading, and plays the violin fairly
well. In his case the fatal malady has
broken out after lying dormant for three
generations. The most pitiful object in
the house is young man who presents
an aspect scarcely human; he is swathed
in flannel and seated in a chair near
the stove; his face and hands are cover
ed with white scales; his face, from
which the nose has disappeared, is most
fearfully distorted, and every now and
then he gives a sort of whistling cough
that seems to come from lungs in the
last stage of decay. The Sisters say
that his whole body is a mass of these
dry white scales, that keep constantly
falling off; in the morning his bed is
covered with them. His voice, like his
cough, though faint, is most thrilling,
and haunts one for many days.
Some little boys, too young to realize
the blight that has fallen on their lives,
are gay and happy, having q very keen
appreciation of the culinary comforts of
the hospital. Among the occupants of
the mems ward there is q look of list
less sadness that one is glad to find abb
sent from the faces of the women, who,
with that facility for accommodating
themselves to circumstances peculiar to
the sex, have managed to give their.
apartments somewhat of q homelike
aspect. Here they sew, knit, weave
and spin, and, when their strength per-
mits. assist in the washing and nursing,
for which work they are always paid.
Among all the patients, male and fe-
male, there reigns a wonderful spirit of
resignation; their devoted nurses have
instilled a spirit of meekness and forti.
tude very foreign to their natures. They
bow to Gods will and carry their cross,
If not cheerfully, at least bravely. The
fixed idea of each that his or her disease
is not leprosy and is not incurable is q
merciful hall~ucination; for, with their
comrades dying before them in all the
agonies of strangulation or suffocation,
the prospect of the same ending to their
own sufferings would be almost too
much for human endurance calmly to
contemplate. 1t is not etiquette when
in the wards to speak of leprosy-the
word is considered insulting; it is STA
nsaladse." The revulsion of feeling
since the favorable change in the man
agement Of the he hospital s2sasas AND Nth pt one sss dan.
gerous result unless checked Dy prudent
surveillance. The friends and relations
who from time to time come to visit
their SICK are not sufficiently afraid of
the possibility of contagion, and would
not sufficiently guard against it if they
were not checked by the rules of the
institution. An eminent Ottawa physi-
clan has given as his opinion that the
disease may be inoculated, may be
impaired through the close intercourse
OF domestic life; that some tiresides
where it has long been harbored would
be dangerous resting places, and that
members of families p~redisposed to the
disease are those who are in the greatest
danger OF contracting it.-CutAoNic