The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1888-10-30
NEED OF MEDICAL CONVENTIONS.
wv. o. Smith, in Male Wreath, October
go, 1881

Wv. o. Smith, in Male Wreath, October
go. 1880
With all that has been done for the
health Of the people in these Islands, and
the large sums devoted annually for the
care of lepers, there has been in certain
directions failure and neglect in dealing
with the subject.
For quarter of century the native
race has been attacked by most maEg-
nant and terrible malady. With great
expenditure Of public funds, and the
employment of many physicians and
| agents the government has attempted to
care for the afflicted ones and prevent
the spread of the disease. Talented
physicians, and others deeply interested
in the welfare of the people, have given
earnest attention to the subject, and very
much has been accomplished and while
desiring not to detract at all from the
Importance and value OF what has been
done, the object of this paper is to call
attention 10 the desultory nature of the
most OF these efforts, and the lack OF
concert of action.
For twenty-five years the disease has
been spreading; with relentless fatality
it has seized upon its victims. Rank,
place, wealth, sex and age have not
been regarded; but the rich and the
poor, the tender and the strong, those
nigh in influence and the obscure have
alike fallen before the devouring pesti-
lence.
We are filed with horror when we
hear of yellow fever, or cholera, or small
pox attacking communities and destroy
ing hundreds OF people; and the story OF
Russian exiles torn from their homes
! and consigned to living graves in Siberia,
excites our pity and Indignation; homes
iesolated, and noble lives sacrificed by
the ravages OF intemperance, arouse our
compassion. Such things band people
and communities together, combinations
are made, conferences are held; the
highest ability and the most powerful
means are employed to protect the peo
Pile. And it is right, anything less would
be almost criminal.
1t is not with spirit of elimination,
nor with sweeping reckless disregard oil
all that has been accomplished and at
tempted, but with due regard for it ALL
that the charge is here made that we as
a community have not done our whole
duty in this matter.
without desc4nJing upon the other
jlerelictions, it would seem that the fail
ing to cause frequent or stated confer
rences among the trained physicians,
who are employed by the people to Crap
pie with this national and dire calamity,
has been negligence for which we are
culpable.
Leprosy wherever found has been
disease which has heretofore batf1ed the
skill of men learned in the art OF healing,
and defed all the remedies and restora-
tives known to science. In ancient
times it was deemed incurable, and those
afflicted with it became hopeless out
casts, and were treated with the utmost
aversion. So universal and deep rooted
mas been this belief that to the present
time person finally pronounced leper
is considered doomed-absolutely, rene
dilessly doomed.
4 benefcent Creator and loving Father,
to assert that He would send an affliction
so horrible without providing remedy?
such a belief is unreasonable; it is in
consistent with our conceptions OF God,
and with our experience. 1t would be
hard to conceive u human parent so de-
PRAYED, so devilish, as to be willing to
permit such a condition to exist. Be
cause adequate remedies have not been
heretofore discovered; because the dis
ease has been surrounded with mysteries
and because the limits of human knowl- |
edge have not been attained, we accept |
the conclusions OF the past and look upon
the result as inevitable.
| know that science is not satisfied, |
and that there are devoted men who are |
giving their lives to the solution of the |
great problem. All honor to them and |
their high devotion. But how little,
apparently, has been contributed by the |
physicians OF these Islands to this great |
end. l say apparently, for believe that |
much more has been accomplished than
is known to the world. The greater |
number of the physicians engaged upon
these Islands during the past twenty
FIVE years, and at present, have been
and are talented men; men whose train
ing and ability qualify them to investi-
gate the subject with understanding;
the opportunities for observation and ex-
pertinent have been unexceptional, and
there must necessarily have been very
great variety in their experiences with
the disease in its various stages and
under different conditions. But in all
these years there has been no organiza-
ton or association among them; no
general conferences at which opinions,
and the results OF expert
ments have been submitted. For the
most part each one has worked by him
self, and kept to himself what he has
learned. Perhaps many of them would
say they had nothing new to state or
that they did not assume to
know more than their fellows.
But it is fact that there have been,
and are physicians whose preconceived
ideas upon the subject of the incura-
bility of leprosy have been very much
shaken; and who are inclining to the
under some conditions it may
be permanently cured. Facts and re-
suits have produced skepticism in re-
gard to the hosry dogma of incurability.
In the face OF historic, scientific and al
most universal opinion upon the subject
such men are slow to proclaim their ex-
oeriences until fully assured OF the per-
OF results.
Might not the meeting together OF these
non from time tn time and discussion |