Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-29
LEPROSY AND TYPHUS.
Secretary Blaine Gathering Secret
Reports on the Diseases.
CONTAGION IN SOUTH AMERICA.
Considerable Danger This Year Of an In
vasion by Yellow Jack.
MARINE HOSPITAL BUREAU WORK
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DISPATCH,

ment of national leprosy hospital is pro-
| vided for by bill that will be introduced
in this Congress This frightful disease is
at present exciting the alarmed attention
of the Federal health authorities 1t is
very much more common in the United
States than is generally imagined, because
local officials customarily ignore and even
conceal cases unless compelled by public
clamor to take action. This they do for the
reason that they know not how to dispose
of them A discovered leper is always a
| terror and burden to community. No
State has an institution for lepers, and those
afflicted with the complaint are usually
hidden away under conditions of extreme
wretchedness to themselves. 1t is asserted
on competent authority that lepers exist
to-day in every good sized city in the coun-
try.
There has been much dispute as to wheth-
er or not leprosy is contagious, but there is
no doubt whatever of the fact that it spreads
wherever sufferers are not carefully isolated.
1t is making very rapid progress in Havana,
where lepers commonly appear on the
streets and handle the same filthy paper
among their healthy fellow citizens
Blaine Interested in tho Disease.
Serious concern is felt by this Govern
ment respecting the prevalence and spread
of leprosy in neighboring countries. as re-
ported recently by United Ctates Consuls in
response to request for information issued
by Secretary Blaine. These reports are as
yet withheld from publication for reasons of
international policy. The finger of warning
is pointed toward the United States of Co.
lombia. Leprosy was unknown among the
aboriginal inhabitants, the first case record
ed being that of a Spanish priest, in 1913
Since then the disease has spread slowly
over the country. During the last 20 years,
however, its advance in all directions has
been rapidly accelerated, and to-day hardly
a populated locality remains unintec.ed
The people are rapidly becoming popula-
tion of lepers.
1t is said that one out of every ten inhabi-
tants of the Departments of Santender and
Boyaca has the disease. This estimate
would place the total number of lepers in
that section of Colombia alone at 100, 900.
The most conservative estimates set it at
10000 The immigration law framed by
the last Congress, in directing the Marine
Hospital Bureau to make sanitary examina-
tions of all immigrants to the United States
named leprosy in particular as disease to
be carefully excluded. Most victims of it
who come here are from South American
and Cuban ports.
The Typhus Scare In Pittsburg.
Another source of dread, imminent this
year, is the "famine fever" as typus is
called in Russia, where the disease is
familiarly known as the offspring of starYa-
tion. Immigrants, as we'll as all vessels,
from that part of the world will be closely
watched. At the suggestion of the Surgeon
General in charge of the Marine Hospital
Service, the Secretary of State has ad-
dressed circular letter to all the
United States Consuls at ports in the
Cars dominions, asking for special report
respecting tvphus. The responses
thus far received indicate that, although
the complaint has reached several of the
ports from the stricken districts, not one Of
these points is in direct communication by
steam or sail with America. OF course, the
tever may arrive from any of them at any
time indirectly, as was the case recently
with the Massiiia, which brought infected
Hebrew passengers to New York from
Odessa by way Of Marseilles, starting a
small epidemic in the metropolis, and badly
frightening Pittsburg and Western Penn
sylvania Fortunately, while no known
disease is more fearfully contagious, typhus
is easily stamped out BY proper sanitary
measures. The coEsuls have been instructed
to keep this Government advised by cable
as to the progress of the disease in Russia
Fencing Out the Plaques.
To keep out the dangerous diseases which
are constantly threatening to inYade the
country from all quarters, Uncle Sam is
compelled to surround his wide domain with
a sanitary fence that is made as impregnable
as possible. He is obliged always to keep
a watchful eye upon the Orient, where is
the breeding place of plague never COM
pletely extinguished, which needs only
spark to kind1e it into destructive and
widespread epidemic. The Persian Gulf
and Red Sea are two wide gateways by
which the cholera may at any time invade
Europe from Asia through the Ottoman
Empire. 1t would be easy for the great
powers to shut these gates by strict quaran-
tine, and do away with this danger to the
health of the civilized world; but, notwith-
standing many discussions of the subject,
they have never been able to come to an
agreement among themselves on the point.
England finds that quarantine rules OBJ
struct her commerce, for the sake of which
she is always willing to sacrifice everything,
even to decency and good morals. So the |
in this regard are left to be ad- |
by corrupt Turkish officials, who
never hesitate to convert threatened epi- |
demic into a source of revenue for them
selves by exacting "backsheesh'' from
people who will pay for being relieved from
inspection and detention: Cholera In the |
East is largely matter of religion. 1t is
spread by pilgrims who journey from India |
and elsewhere in Southern Asia, as well as |
from Northern Africa, to Mecca.
The Danger From Yellow Jack.
Happily. it is believed that danger from |
Asiatic cholera will be less this year than |
last On the other hand, yellow fever it at |
present more than usually threatening. |
There has just been a frightful epidemic of ,
The latter at Rio, and vessels infected with !
the disease have arrived at United States
ports much earlier and in greater numbers
then ordinarily. This complaint is cause |
,f dread along the Southern Atlantic and
Gulf coasts every summer Certain ports
in South America and the West Indies are
'ick with it the year around, simply be-
cause of their filthy and abominable sani-
the Marine Hospital service main
.ains large quarantine establishments on
remote islands, whittier ships are taken for I
cleansing and scientific disinfection. and
v here there are hospitals.
One of these stations in on the Dry Tor
,ugas, 80 miles from land. 1t includes
complete psychological laboratory, and is
in charge of an expert medical officer, who
is making special Investigation respecting
he nature of yellow fever, which is thought
% be produced by another variety OF those
vegetable parasites called "bac-
teria-" Any craft arriving at Southern
port and found to be infected is sent BY the
local authorities TO the nearest ''island of