Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1889-08-09
TtfR THEORIES OF LEpRoSY.
zHREE WAYS By WHTOH THE DIS
EASE MAY BE TAKEN.

The idea That a Diet of Badly Cooked
Fish VIII Bring on the Dread Hfalady
is Not Considered of Any Weight by
Scientists-Eyidenoe That n Healthy
Person Cannot Contract the Disease.
Our knowledge is largely inferential,
and the facts which come under our in
dividual notice and point In some partic-
ular direction naturally impress us more
than those which are observed by other
persons, which perhaps may lead to a
different conclusion. According to the
principal theories in vogue in recent
times leprosy may be acquired by a he
redity, (2) by diet of imperfectly cooked
or decomposing fish, and (3 by eonta-
gion. The Norwegian physicians for
many years supported the doctrine of
heredity, and to this day numerous OBJ
servers in all parts of tn" world consider
that the disease is trans. 'ted from gen.
GRAFTON to generation.
AS Jonathan Hutchinson has we'll
shown, and as all of US know, English
men and others who have no family taint
are occasionally liable to become leprous
when they dwell in countries where the
disease is epidemic. Heredity has,
therefore, sometimes, at any rate, moth
ing whatever to do with its develop
ment. Were leprosy to any material
extent hereditary we might reasonably
expect to find cases among the descend
ants of the lepers who have emigrated
from Norway to the United States.
DR.. Hansen, who recently visited
North America for the purpose of investi-
eating this question, found, however,
that Of the 100 Norwegian lepers who
had settled in the states of Wisconsin,
Minnesota, and Dakota, none of the off
spring--in some cases as far as the
great grandchildren-have shown signs
of the disease. With the eminent ex-
ceptfon of Jonathan Hutchinson, the
fish theory" has now little scientific
support. Although the principal oenters
OF leprosy are often in districts, as on the
coast of Norway, where fish, frequently
in an uncooked, salted, or dried state,
forms q staple article of food, we must
remember that the disease Is widely pre-
yalent whore fish is rarely or never
eaten, o. g., in some inland districts Of
India, China, and Brazil, and that num-
bers of individuals in Scandinavia,
Africa, and elsewhere, who largely con-
sumo fish, and even stale fish, never de-
velop the disease.
A belief in the contagiousness of lep-
rosy was formerly almost universal, with
the result that rigorous measures of iso-
!ation were nearly everywhere adopted;
DuU during the last half century the
''contagion theory" has fallen somewhat
into abeyance-at least in the medical
mind-mainly in consequence Of the ar
guments of Drs. Danielsen and Boeck in
their celebrated treatise published in
1913, and Of the authoritative expression
OF opinion on the part of the Committee
of the Royal College of Physicians in
1857, whose valuable report, as his royal
highness the Prince of Wales has stated,
was drawn up after extensive inquiries
carried out under the duke of Newcas-
tie.
At the present time, however, the
view that the disease can be contracted
by the healthy from those who are suf-
fering from leprosy is undoubtedly gain
ing ground, and facts are certainly accu-
mulating which point to this conclusion.
1t must, nevertheless be admitted, on
the one hand, that there is a vast amount
Of negative evidence in reference to the
eommunicability Of leprosy from person
to person, and, on the other, that the
supporters of the theory are able to pro-
duce but very few clear and trustworthy
cases which cannot be otherwise ac-
counted for than by pure contagion.
In the words, however, OF a Dublin
physician who has published almost as
good an instance of the communicating
OF leprosy from one man to another as it
Is possible to obtain, zone fragment of
positive evidence carries more weight
than q vast amount of negative evidence"
The important discovery of DR.. Hansen
in Norway that certain microscopic
fungus much resembling that which is
of 'tubercle," " is always to
be found in the diseased tissues Of u
.eper-an observation which has been
over and over again corroborated by
in all parts Of the world
has had much to do with the growing be-
lief that leprosy must be regarded as a
specific infective "bacillary" disease. -
Fortnightly Review.