Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-02-17
THE LEPRosY SCARE.
This Dreaded Disease Is Still Prevalent on
Both Continents.

EEFnO0I SOAhE.
This Dreaded Disease Is Still Prevalent on
Both Continents.
Leprosy has increased so rapidly in
Europe during the last quarter of
century that eminent medical men ex-
press belief that the population in
general is becoming seriously exposed
to the possible ravages of that terrible
disease. The scare has extended to
the new world. 1t is positively assert
ed that ''in tropical America, and even
among the Creoles of Louisiana, the
Scandinavians of Minnesota and Wis
consin, and the Mormon converts from
the Sandwich islands at Salt Lake, the
disease now has hold that is likely to
be most difficult to overcome"
Some distinguished physicians COM
plain that the attitude of medical men
toward leprosy has long been unscien-
tine, superstitious and professionally
d1screditable, they having assumed that
It's causes are undiscoverable and its
scourges irremediable. In a word, the
loathsome disease has been looked upon
as direct and incurable inf1iction from
the hand of God, against which, there
fore, it is vain to struggle
This superstitious belief has come
down through the ages. In Europe
and America, leprosy is popularity sup
posed to be disease peculiar to bible
lands" The prevailing ideas about it
have been derived from the rigid Mo-
sale laws as to leprosy, and from the
oarbarous treatment of lepers in
Palestine. When. after the first Cru
sades, leprosy spread like an epidemic
through Europe, efforts were made to
extend the ministering spirit of Chris
tianity into the treatment of its count
less victims. But, notwithstanding
these humane efforts, the lot of the
leper was pitiable and distressing be-
yond description. He was set apart
from his fellow beings, and was com
pletely and forever an outcast from the
world. He was considered both legally
and politically as dead person; SHOW
el1ul OF earth was cast upon his body,
the ceremonial for the burial of the
dead was pronounced over him, and
masses were said for the benefit of his
soul. But no attempt was made to cure
him; indeed, such an effort would have
been considered impious in high quar-
contend against the fat of God.
The influence of these superstitions
has largely prevailed down to the pres.
ent time. But now members of the
medical profession in all parts of the
world are throwing it off, The leading
physicians of America are completely
emancipated from it. They have taken
purely scientific attitude toward lep-
rosy. They say that, like ever other
disease, leprosy has its causes, and that
those causes can be discovered and OBJ
waited. Satisfactory progress has al
ready been made in this direction. No
cure for leprosy once seated in the
human system has been found; nor can
person who has inherited the faint be
surely saved from its development; but
means have been discovered for pre-
venting the spread of the disease
among persons who are not tainted
with it. Among the chief of these
means is the absolute isolation Of lepers
In asylums and retreats specially pro-
vided for that purpose. This mode of
treatment is imperatively insisted upon,
because it is now the settled conviction
OF the best authorities that leprosy is
contagious; that it can be impaired by
personal contact, and is sometime com
municated to untainted individuals by
their familiar association with those
who are afflicted with it. The truth of
this theory was verified by the romantic
case OF Father Damien, The young Bel
gian priest who several years ago
took up his abode in the leper
community OF Mplolzai; in the
Sandwich islands, for the purpose
of ministering to it's afflicted mem
bers. Father Damiens devotion and
tragic fate arrested the attention and
excited the sympathy of the civilized
world. When he entered upon his self
sacrificing work he was in perfect
health and in the full vigor of young
manhood. He took every precaution
to escape the disease, but his associa-
ton with its victims subjecting him to
its contagious influence, it attacked
and overcame him, and he died the
leper's lingering and miserable death.
1t is authoritatively alleged that in
many OF our cities there are lepers now
running at large and mingling with the
population. This is the main source
of danger; it is on this fact that the
leprosy scare it cl!i"fy founded; and it
is to the removal of this source of i'm
minent peril that efforts should be first
directed. N. y. Ledger.