, 1890-11-22
LspER MARRIAGES IN VENEZUELA
Tho Children of LePers May BE Entirely
Free from the Disease.

Tho Children of LePer. May b. Entirely
Free from he Disease
Tho report on leprosy in Venezuela
made to the state department by E.
Plumacher, consul at Maracaibo, de
scribes at considerable length the in
PRODUCTION of the scourge in 1925, when
a sufferer from Santo Domingo landed
at Maracaibo and spread the infection.
In the course of three years the evil
had attained such proportions that an
island about four miles distance from
the city was set apart for the isolation
of incurables.
1t was not until 1876, however, that
a charitable work among these exiles
was undertaken by a number OF good
women in Maracaibo. Their efforts in
the way of better buildings, social OBJ
and carr have been so sue
eessful rs { o have attracted wide atten-
ton. and this lRzaretto bids fair to be
come the place Of seclusion for the
whole of Venezuela,
There are now about 125 patients on
the islands. Water works have been
constructed. and abundant supply Sc
cures cleanliness Of persons and quar-
ters and the irrigation Of the ground
devoted to agriculture. The diet is
wholesome and abundant, and the av-
erage cost Of the maintenance Of each
person mounts to about S13 in Amer
lean money monthly.
A comfortable building has been
erected for the use Of the employees,
while for the patients n large edifice
built of concrete, forming n parallelo-
gram, with a courtyard in the center,
is divided into separate apartments,
plainly bat sufficiently furnished. A
neat chapel has been built, where every
Sunday religious service is held and the
sacraments administered to those who
may $ desire. A pleasant feature is
the establishment of cottages, with
grounds attached, in which reside those
patients whose means permit it. Land
is given free to any one who IL able to
erect a dwelling, and as there are quite
a number who possess regular Incomes
little homesteads are soon formed, Civ
ing the island a cheerful aspect,
il was at first a much mooted point
~ to whether marriages should be
permitted among the patients. II has
always been well understood that a
union between a sound and n diseased
person would be liable to result in the
propagation of diseased offspring, but
il was believed that marriage between
two undoubted lepers was sure to be
fruitless. So, after n long discussion,
permission was given, and.a number of
weddings were celebrated.
For years the theory OF sterility was
not contradicted by experience, and
seemed & be about definitely settled,
when two births occurred on the island,
the parents in each case being lepers.
Neither of the children has as yet shown
of the disease, and one of
them who had reached the hge of IL
years, having passed his whole life on
the island with his leprous parents, was
allowed 10 return TO society, after hav-
ing been formally pronounced clean by
a board OF competent experts.
This is but one instance Of the puE-
Eling character OF the disease. The
general effect OF these marriages seems
to have been to induce more cheerful
ness and resignation. and to add great
ly TO the good discipline of the estab-
lishment Although marriages would
not be allowed between a sound and n
diseased person yet in the case of the
development of leprosy in n of u
after marriage the sound con
is permitted to accompany the
other to the lazaretto. and this has &C
CURED in many instances. Cor. Pitts
burg Dispatch.