St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-08-26
r. IN AMERICA.
Is 1t Likely to Spread Extensively
in This Country?


New York Sun.
The heroic life and death of Father
Damien have recently called the pain
full attention of the whole civilized
world to the horrible disease of leprosy,
and now the subject is presented anew.
but in a scientific light, by DR.. Prince
A. Morrow, in an address before, the
academy of medicine of this city, giving
the results of his observations in Mex
leo and the Sandwich islands.
LeprOSy is now commonly looked on
dis of historical interest almost wholly,
DIR, at least, as a disease practically ex-
tanct SO far as civilized countries are con
derned; and yet it is still a living reality
in one-fOurth of the globe, including
this country, in which it is slowly gain
! ing ground. During the last winter DR..
Morrow visited two leprous centers in
the Teche river district of Louisiana, at
St. Martinsville;a and at Bayou Lafourche,
and learned of the existence of scattered
cases along the line of the Southern
Pacific railroad. He also saw cases in
the San Pablo hospital of Mexico and in
the streets OF the city. There were six
in the pest houses of San Francisco, and
ne received reports of twenty in all in
California. In the Sandwich islands,
though leprosy is of comparatively re-
cent introduction only, there are LOO
lepers at Molokai.
The slow spread of the disease in the
Sandwich islands is referred to by DR..
Morrow as a warning for this country.
For twenty years after the first case was
identified, leprosy did not increase fast
enough to attract the attention of the
health authorities, and when at las
they began to understand the peril the
horrible malady bad gained such head
way that they found it impossible to ar
rest it's progress, even by the most rigid
system of segregation; and since then
it has continued to spread until now
it threatens the ultimate extinction of
the Hawaiian race.
The introduction of leprosy into our
w country is traced by DR.. Morrow to
four separate and distinct sources. 1t
was carried into Louisiana by the AGA
dams. into the Northwestern states by
Seandinavians, along the Pacific coast
by Cinnamon, and emigrants from the
West Indies brought it to the Southern
Atlantic coast. Forty-two cases were
recently reported at New Orleans and
100 at Key West, while numerous other
concealed cases are suspected as exist
ing III different parts OF the Union Dr.
Morrow therefore regards the extensive
spread of leprosy in this country as a
possibility strong enough to require the
adoption of Legislative measures for the
isolation of every leper, and to prevent
the immigration from foreign countries
of those who have in their systems the
seeds of the frightful and so far incuI-
able malady.
Contrary to the opinion of many
foreign physicians of eminence. he
maintains, from his personal observa-
ton of leprosy in the Sandwich islands:
that there is 1.-The most abundant and
conclusive proof of its eminent con-
tagiousuess." If that is the case, of
course, every leper is dangerous. Nor
is it safe to assume that the suscepti-
bility to leprosy is extlnguished by
civilization. AS DR.. Morrow says, the
spread of leprosy in the Sandwich
islands has been coineident with an adj
vanced civilization of the natives.