Daily Honolulu press. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1886, 1886-04-02
Lsegas, HOSPITAL AT scurAal
Beings whose Minds Dwell on Des psrato
Present and Hopeless Future.


Present and Hopeless Future.
IConstautinope Cor. Journal des Debatsl
There are now few of these establish
ments hospitals for lepers) left and It is
not too much to say that In the one have
just visited human misery seems to have
attained its highest pitch. | saw mum )ers
Of beings sightless. their faces distorted
out of all shape, their hands and toes
having dropped off, their voice gone
breathing with desperate effort their skin
peeling oil and black as that of mummy
insensible to pain when pricked In Ger.
tain parts of the body. Their feet and
TANKS are covered with horrible sores,
through which what Is left to them of
life GIBBS away. Their attitude is one of
profound apathy and exhaustion. and
could not help being reminded of the
saying of the leper of Aosta: Endless
seem the nights when the mind is dwell
ing upon desperate present and hope
less future
And yet amid all these horrible scenes
there lived married couples and children,
the latter of whom, free from disease as
yet play about like other children, re
CARELESS of tho spectacle which they have
before them. One of these wretched men.
not more than &c. but among the most
afflicted, has very pretty wife and
child who is fresh and rosy like young
Cupid. 1t is said that the disease is not
contagious as the governor, who has been
there forty years has wife and six chill
dren, who enjoy the best of health The
brother of one Of the lepers, who is sol
dier in a neighboring barracks, comes to
see him whenever he gets leave, and he
has not caught the disease. while DR..
Zambaco comes twice week and handles
the lepers with impunity. DIR. yambaco,
who is one of the leadifig Greek physi-
clans at Constantinople is of opinion that
it is not at all contagious and that, though
occasionally inherited, il is more often
acquired. the main cause being privation
and want
But in the east the conviction that
leprosy is contagious still has very firm
root, and for this reason at Mecca, while
the lepers are given food and clothing.
they never receive any money, the belief
being that it would spread the disease
when put into circulation again. So at
Scutari the lepers are literally inclosed
within living tomb, as the Miskin Hane
is the center of the vast cemetery in which
so many millions of dead have been In.
TERED since Constant,nople was first built
and is surrounded by the splendid cypress
trees, the dark green of which contrasts
so well with the blue outline of the sea of
Marmora and the shores of Asia Minor in
the distance. The hospital itself is quad
rilateral. about 100 feet long, and with
only one story To the right of the en-
trance is a small mosque, in which the
lepers reeite their five pray ers day, this
being their only distraction
In the center is the courtyard, upon
which open twenty rooms and it is in
these that twenty seven sufferers drag on
a miserable existence Their rooms are
lighted with small window, with wooden
bars, while in the way of furniture there
is nothing but mattress thrown upon the
ground and few commoI utensils
More abject misery it is impossible to con-
ceive, and it is made all the more poignant
by the presence in the courtyard of q
tomb erected to leper who was said to
be saint This tomb is covered with
knots OF ribbon placed there by persons
who have come to be cured of some dis
ease Behind another lattice in the court
yard is small grinding stone, and the
local tradition is that any person who has
the courage TO join hands with female
leper and set the grinding stone in motion
without looking at the water as it runs of
will have his wish granted, always pro-
vided that he has first deposited coin on
the stone.