Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-08-17
WHAT WE KNOW OF LEpRosy.
The Present Status of the Controversy
Among the Physicians.


Our knowledge is largely inferestial
, and the facts which come under our indi-
yidual notice, and point in some particular
direction, naturally impress US more than
those which are observed by other per
sons, which perhaps may lead to differ
ent conclusion, According TO the principal
theories in vogue in recent time leprosv
may be acquired by ~ heredity, t2) by a
diet of imperfectly cooked or decomposing
fish, and tS) by contagion. The Nor
wegian physicians for many years sup
ported the doctrine of heredity, and TO
this day numerous observers in all parts of
the world consider that the disease is
transmitted from generation to generation.
As Jonathan Hutchinson has we'll shown.
and as all of US know, EngliShmen and
others who have no family faint are occa-
sionally liable to become leprous when
they dwell in countries where the disease
is endemic. Heredity therefore has, some
times at any rate, nothing whatever to do
with its development. Were leproSy to
any material extent hereditary we might
reasonably expect to find cases among the
descendants OF the lepers who have emf
grated from Norway to the United States
DR.. Hansen, who recently visited North
America for the purpose of investigating
this question, found, however, that of the
100 Norwegian lepers who had settled In
the States of Wisconsin, Miunesota and
Dakota, none Of the ofispring-iu some
cases as far as the great-grandchildreu-
have shown signs OF the disease. With
the eminent exception of Mr.. Jonathan
Hutchinson, the fish theory" has now
little scientific support. Although the
principal centers of leproSy are often in
districts, as on the coast of Norway, where
FISH, frequently in an uncooked, sailed or
dried state, forms a staple article of food,
we must remember that the disease is
widely prevalent where fish is rarely or
never eaten, c. g., in some inland districts
Of India, China and Brazil. and that num-
bers of individuals in Scandinavia, Africa
and elsewhere, who largely consume fish,
and even stale fish, never develop the dis
ease. A belief in the Contagiousness of
leprosy was formerly almost universal,
with the result that rigorous measures
of isolation were nearly everywhere
adopted, but during the last half century
the "contagion theory" has fallen some
what into abeyance-at least III the medi-
cal mind-mainly in consequence of the
arguments of Drs Danielsen and Roeck
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 1867,
whose valuable report, as his Royal High
ness, the Prince of Wales, has stated, was
drawn up after extensive inquiries carried
out under the Duke of Newcastle.
4 tho r.raSart tip,a b1urarra,, bn
that the disease can be contracted by the
healthy from those who are suffering from
leprosy is undoubtedly gaining ground,
and facts are certainly accommodating
which point to this conclusion. 1t must
nevertheless he admitted. on the one hand,
that there is vast amount Of negative
evidence in reference to the communica-
bility of Ieprosy from person to person,
and, on the other, that the supporters of
the theory are able to produce but very
few clear and trustworthy cases which
cannot be otherwise accounted for than by
pure contagion. In the words, however,
Of Dublin physician who has published
almost as good an instance of the COM
municability of leprosy from one man to
another as it is possible to obtain, zone
fragment of positive evidence carries
more weight than vast amount of mega
tive evidence" The important discovery
of DR.. Hansen in Norway that a certain
microscopic fungus much resembling that
which is characteristic OF "tubercle," is al
ways to be found in the diseased tissues of
leper-an observation which has been
over and over again corroborated by
pathologists in all parts of the world
has had much to do with the growing
belief that leprosy must be regarded as a
specific infective 'bacillaryo disease.-Dr
Phjneas S. 4braham, in the F0rtaighdy Re
iie1y