The Hawaiian gazette., 1885-10-27

| leper's body. Besides this, on one Of my visits
to the leper settlement, knowingly slept in a
bed which had been occupied on the proceed
ing night by leper, and for two days ate Of
the food cooked and prepared by a leper; but,
so far as l ain aware, have not contracted
the disease. Other FIVE cases of incubation,
making ten in all, and only negative results.
These are all the cases Of incubation that |
know, or can find any account Of
On page 2l4, Transactions, DIR. SAKE says:
"Leprosy was unknown to the natives until
1913, when it was introduced by the Chinese,
and AHA, a Chinaman, was the first ieper
Identified by the Hawaiian Board Of Health. !"
As matter Of fact, AHA was a full blooded
native. captain of the body guard of Kamaha-
meha III. Still further, AHA was a leper as
early as 1910; and there is yet third inaccu-
racy in this single paragraph Of DR.. Saxe's
communication, for the first Hawaiian Board
Of Health was organized in 1856, and the law
for the segregation Of lepers was not passed
until 1865, ten years after Atlas death. Mr.
Harry Swinton, Superintendent Of Lunalilo
Home for Aged and INDECENT Natives, tells me
that his aunt was Atlas wife, that she died in
1910, twenty years after her husband became
leper, non-leprous, although she lived with
her husband up to the time Of his DEATH Mr.
Swinton further AYERS that for six months be-
fore AHA died, he (Mr. 81 frequently slept in
the same bed with AHA, but Mr.. S. shows no
signs of leprosy.
Rev. j. D. Paris, of Kawaloa, Hawaii, says
in letter bearing date of August 18th, 1884:
"As near as can find out, the first one affected
with this terrible disease in Kona was a woman
by the name of Namaina. The first
signs of leprosy, very slight, appeared on this
woman's face, it is said, about the year 1915.
No one thought anything about leprosy at that
time. How this woman was infected with the
disease is not known. There was a
man living at Kaawaloa in 1871 who was af-
hicted with elephaatiasis. In 1852 when
came to Kona, this same man was living, the
disease had spread. and his feet and limbs
were enlarged enormously, and his whole body
seemed to I've a mass of loathsome disease.
gave him medicine from time to time which
gave him relief, but not cure. In 1864, think,
Dr. l.. II. Gulick was spending few days with
us, when Keaweheuln, the diseased man, came
up for medicine. | called tho doctor, told
him what l lad done from time to time, and
after he had examined him inquired, What
do you call this diseasef He replied: Il call
it a species of leprosy, of the very wost kind.
Turning TO Hooper'b Medical Dictionary,
found he said it had been considered by some
authors species Of leprosy. Now if this was
leprosy, it had existed at the islands long be-
fore the introduction of the gospel (IS20.)
The first Cinnamon who came to Koua
were coolies, brought here by P. Cummings
and II. n. Greenwell, in the year 1850 or 1851
There were no lepers, nor has there been a
case of leprosy among Cinnamon To my knowl-
edge, until the last ten years, and these we're
the children of Cinnamon, one the cook OF Mr..
Greenwich" Mr.. Paris was one Of the early
missionaries here.
Mr.. L. Bailey, also missionary of Wailuku,
Maui, writes under date OF August 9Th, 1884:
''But it is not at all certain that it originated
with the Chinese. The natives call it from
the first The Mai Pake' (Ohinese sickness, }
but never knew Chinaman to have it. Still,
they may have had it for all that. While we
lived in Kodala (Hawaii) in 1888 and 80, n
native girl had disorder which in some of it's
aspects resembled leprosy, and which resisted
our attempts to subdue it, though we used a
very heroic treatment. 1t might have been
ecthyma. But it was at Wailuku that first
saw most undoubted case of leprosy. The
subject was boy eight or ten years of age,
wha showed a thickening in spots about the
face. These spots steadily increased in size
and thickness, becoming Of dark color, and
finally the skin broke and discharged, the
broken surface constantly charging, at the
same time that the face became more and more
swollen and the spots ran together, making a
hideous appearance, till it ended in death. d"
Mr.. Bailey went to Waikiki in 1889 or 40.
Page lxv., Coll. Phys Report: "Drs. Dan
ielssen and Boeck state that the average dur
alton of the tubercuar form among the patients
in the hospital at Bergen, from 1910 10 1857,
was between nine and ten years; and of the
an@sthetic form among the same was between
eighteen and twenty years.
Cases are known where the disease begins
in childhood, runs its course for time, and
then remains quiescent until old age. Mr..
Sherman further says that Kaualoakauahi was
a resident Of the south side of Hawaii. In the
same year-ls35-he (Mr. S. saw a woman
by the name of Waiakalono, at Hilo. on tho
north side of Hawaii, who had large red
dumps" come out on her face; and from what
he [ Mr. S. has since seen, he is confident this
woman was a lepor. He further states that in
1886 he saw several other cases in which toes
and fingers had dropped off. Besides these
white people, many old natives have assured
me that they met with examples of the disease
in Lahaina, Maui, previous to 1910, and did
not know what to call it; but, as they were
told by the Chinese that it was common in
China, they (the natives) finally dubbed it
"Mai Pake," the Chinese sickness for want of
any other term.
In fact the exact date when leprOsy began
here is unknown, although it is commonly be-
lieved to be of recent origin; but there is not a
scintilla of evidence to show that the Chinese
had anything to do with its introduction. At
least if there be any such evidence, ii has es-
capped the most vigorous search | could make
for it.
1t is certain that from 1885 to 1850 the dis
ease was known TO exist on all the islands of
the group, although at first no one knew what
to call it. Rumor asserts that the late Mr..
Brickwood, formerly Postmaster General,
Sheriff of Oahu, in 1910 recognized AHA as a
leper, he (Mr. b. having seen the disease pre-
viousy in Egypt; and from that time on, as
more white men came TO the country, the dread
word "leprOsy" began to be generally used,
and the disease commonly Recognized.
l have only drawn upon little brooklet of
facts in the preparation of this paper, while a
mighty river, ready to be used, runs directly
by me, because the narrow limits Of maya
zine article necessarily curtail my remarks
Let us now proceed to sum up the evidence.
FIRST. Women conceive in numerous cases
by lepers, and neither the women nor their off,
spring develop the disease.
Second. AS we have seen, drinking the sa-
Iva of leper for years, and smoking the same
pipe, fail to reproduce the disease.
Third. In ten cases of incubation, the dis
ease is not communicated to those so inOcu-
lated in single instance.
Fourth. Men married to leprous women, and
rice UersG, are no more likely to contrast the
disease than are those, here, who hold no in
tercourse with lepers.
Fifth. Leprous parentage is no assurance
that the child will become leper.
SLrh. Segregation plays very little part in
the decrease of the disease.
In view of these facts, and multitude of
others which | cannot here present, believe
myself to be fully justified in saying that LEP-
ROSY Is DISEASE WHICH CANNOT DE COM
INUNDATED PROM A LEPBR TO ANY OTHER
PERSON, by, through, or under any combina-
tiou Of circumstances, except hereditary, and
that even this plays but little part in the prop
sgation Of the disease we may know from the
fact that from 1866, when Kaiawao leper set
Element was founded, until March 3lst 1881,
2,9il lepers were consigned there, and up to