, 1890-05-28

Cane Breton Island, has been making a
thorough investigation into the ramldca.
tiOns of the disease.
The lepers forming the settlement of Mo.
lOkai, in the Sandwich Islands, number up.
wards of eleven hundred, land here it is said
all phases of the disease can best be
observed. The locality has recently be.
come famous as the scene Of Father DAM.
ems self-saciiicing labouls and heroic DEATH
Public attention has again been directed to
this singular community by the arrival i'll
this country on January Both .of Miss Amy
q. Fowler, the daughter of a clergyman OF
the Church of England, who has embraced
the Catholic faith, and is o known as
Sister Rose Gertrude. She is en- route for
Molokai, where SHE will devote her lie to
the lepers, taking mp and carrying on the
work of Father Damien.
It will be seen from the facts here present.
ed that while the disease of leprOsy IS scatter
ell over a wide extent of territory, it numbers
many victims. 1t is known to be lncrrhs-
ing in Cape Colony, aud it is said to be
spreading in South Africa and the West
Indies; but Notwithstanding the fact that
the disease is of very ancient origin,a and las
come under the eye of physicians foriages,
comparatively little is actually known
about it or the best methods Of treatment.
On this point DR.. Prince Morrow said, in
an address before The New York Academy
of Medicine, i'll June last, that sit Is the
rpprOach of medical science that a disease
which has been characterised az the most
ancient and the most exclusively human OF
all diseases should, after centuries OF Oh
servation, be SO imperfectly understood"
This points Enthusiastically to the fact that
o wide field is open to the scientists as we'll
as the philanthrophists Ofthe world for the
investigation and relief or cure of leprOsy.
The National Leprosy FuGd, Of which
upward of G7 900 has been subscribed, will
be used in part for the endowment of two
scholarships the holder of one of which will
make it his business to study the disease in
the United Kingdom and Europe, while
the holder of the other is to go abroad
and study leprosy ia India, China,
and the British Colonies. AS ~ proof that
there is a good prospect of achieving sub
"stantial results from efforts in the direction
indicated, iC is only necessary to quote the
opinion recently EXPIRE ssed by so eminent
an authority as Mr.. Jonathan Hutchinson,
PreSid emf of the Royal College of SurgeOhs
London, who said that only earnest and
Rteadfast devotion and attention to tile
disease is needed in order to discover the
causes of the leprosy and the means of put.
ting an end to it. The discovery Of the
remedy might not Immediately follow
that of the cause, but it would follow
with sure and certain steps and he believed
that it would not be very far distant.
He said that he would be far from doing
anything which would reflect on the
di ~ligence and zeal of his profession,
hut lie would say that its members were all
the better for a good vigorous push from
behind occasionally, and if the public
should take this question up and feel an
interest in it, an increased interest would
be taken in it by the medical profession
AS q further outcome of the awakened
interest in regard to the disease of lpprosy
- meeting occurred in Brooklyn, N. Y,
February 18th, when papers were read OF
the subject, and a meeting took place of
the recently formed American Leprosy
Society. Miss Amy Fowler was present,
and it was announced that she would sail
from San Francisco for the Leper settle-'
ment at Molokai on February 18th.