Los Angeles daily herald., 1884-11-13
Lepra,, and Its Dangers,

Tie following appeared In the Medicdl
Re- rOrd OF August stn;
Good results may follow evil methods, aud
whether Dr. O'D0nnell be n chnrlatan and
an ilarmist or not, he has excited Interest In
4 subject tndt deserves the attention Of the
Americ III people. Leprosy l. not n disc use
of which those who urc elem aud ctaste
need ever have any iehr; but MS 4 ] irge
number of Americ III citizens possess neither
of these virtues, II Is well that they provide
against the contingency of elephhntiasis
lgrecorum. .or there Is little doubt that
lleprosy Is contagious Just as syphilis Is con
tagious, /. e, through the agency OF the Sc
cretiOns and blood. Among lcentious peo-
people 1t may spread with rdpidty. The in-
huence of heredity is also potent In increas
| ing the number OF victims. Lepers repro
duce lepers, though fortunately the second
generation dies before 1t can be productive.
The contngion OF leprosy, according to DR..
George THU, lies unquestionably In the
bacillus leprte, first discovered by Hansen.
This bacillus resembles very closely that of
tuberculosis. Its habitat Is the lymph or
white blood corpuscle, which 1t changes
into the leprous cell 1t makes of this an
irritative body, producing the peculiar ex-
udations and low grade iniammatCry con-
| ditions characteristic OF the disease.
| The parasitic theory of leprOsy is an inter
estingone, and, II true, would throw anew
light upon methods OF ptophylaxis and
plain satisfactorily by this theory the facts
OF hereditary transmission of the disease,
and especially such a one as is given by DIR.
A. W. SAKE. That writer says: The healthy
wife of a leper gave birth to u leprous child.
Her husband died. The still healthy widow
m arried a healthy man, and gave birth
again to a leprous child.
Aa regards China and leprosy, ii is To be
borne In mind that ii we are to legslate
against the disease, we must not single out
China. Leprosy exists also in Mexico, the
West Indies, India, Norway, Sweden New
brunswick, Australia, the sandwich Islands,
Eastern Africl; in fact, on the sea coast in
nearly all tropical regions
In India there are said to be over 100000
lepers. The numner in China is unknown,
but is nnquestionablygreat The Hawaiians,
of all people, are most scourged by 1t, nearly
one tenth of the whole population being af
fccted.
-Four years ago there were between fifty
and one hundred lepers in the United States
Whether this number has increased we can
not say, one thing Is certain, however, that
the disease cannot be spread by the simple
exhibition of eases of leprosy before the
public, However bad the tsste or useless
and sensational the object of such per
formance, 1t would be as innocent to public
health as the exhibition of like number OF
cases OF syphilis.
The citizens OF New York who have been
so worried by the possible introduction of
leprosy into their city should be informed
that for years there have been one or more
lepers in the city hospitals, one even having
served for a time as nurse in Bellevue hos
ptil
While leprosy is a disease about which
much is unknown, there are certain facts
that are tolerably well established. These
have been formulated by DR.. A. W. SAKE
C'RepOrt on Hawaiian Lsprosy') as follows:
"Q) Leprosy is not II form of syphilis (2l, IL
is specific and well marked disease; (3),
there are two varieties, the tubercular and
angsthetic (some add third, the macularl;
~, these varieties may be distinct or associ
ated (5), 1t is more common in males than
IN females; (6l, II Is hereditary: "a, IL Is CON
tagious; (s) II is incurable; (g), Europeans
are, to certain extent, exempt from the
disease, probably from greater precautions
In avoiding the cOntagion; no. the causes of
the disease are unknown; finally, leprosy
disappears with improved hygienic oondi-
tions of a people, cultivation of the soil and
absolute Isolation of all lepers."