The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-03-26
,E;pRosY IN CHINA.
WHOLE Districts Infected oy 1ne
Dreed Disease.

Dreed Disease.
ror Many Centuries the oeie ...s,,;,
s,-,,,ected the Existence OF Hacn
No Remedy But Excin-
Having lived in China a nnmoer ~
a.s and having travelled extensively
5ur,no that time in the service OF tne
Ch;n,sa government, says writer IN
- s,.;entifc american, ! have often
o Wv. mon whole districts and towns
whe7e le?orosy was prevalent and
s,,a,,.;nc :sno reading Chinese fairly
.4a1: !, made several inquiries with
.;e,y If a,certaining the native ideas as
- ,ha origin. spread and prevention OF
that fearful disease
IN one cce~ s;cn i came upon whole
,<.no,. coio1;es, at and close to the city
81 Ven Ping, in the province of Flu
CHEN. asked the project of Yen Ping
I'm if ne knew anything about the cause
~ the disc asa (which in Chinese is
known as ma feng} and what steps the
local authorities took to prevent the
spread oi the disease. He answered me
that very little was known about the
cause, but that leprosy was about asold
as China itself. It is, however, probably
caused, he said, by ''a small animal,
but SO small as to be invisible to the
eve, and on the whole not perceptible
Il, the senses at all. !"
This struck me at the time as very in
teresting, as it proved that the Chinese
had made shrewd guess-ages before
the "civilized west'-at the now so COM
uonlv discussed bacillus. The project
further said that the general idea was
that the seeds Of leprosy entered the
rice through the water in certain local
tiles, and that it was through the food
that the disease to some extent was
propagated, and of course through ac-
tual bodily contagion. There are nu-
merous asylums at Yen Ping Flu for
iepers, but they were allowed to go
about a good deal.
The lepers in the said district were
allowed to intermarry, but no marriage
was allowed between healthy people
and those suffering from leprosy. |
was shown good many young boys
and grown-up girls, several of whom
showed no outward signs of the disease,
and several of whom even were very
good-loolzing, but who nevertheless all
of them had the faint of the disease.
The Chinese claim to be able to recog-
uize the existence of the disease in such
case, by the peculiar, nearly abnormally
healthy complexion.
The guess at the bacteria is said to
have been made many centuries ago;
many remedies (all, or most, of which
were exceedingly unlikely have been
proposed from time to time, but the pre-
feet said that really there was no rem
edy, and only one way of preventing
the spread of the disease, namely, by
keeping the lepers strictly in their
asylums and prohibiting marriages of
lepers altogether, and thus stopping the
spread of leprosy by contagion and her.
edity.
There are many superstitious notions
in existence in China with regard to the
cure of the disease. Thus d Chinese
official told me that many OF the natives
thought that a person suffering from
leprosy could be cured by marrying q
healthy person of the opposite sex; and
great cunning has often been used to
conceal the disease, and thus carry out
plans of such kinds, with
a view of curing either the son or
daughter as the case may be. This, of
proves the ignorance of the
masses and also how still further chan
nels are opened for the propagation Of
the disease. On another occasion a
woman offered me and friend some
peanuts" an official who was travel
ing with US rushed up, saying only:
ma Feng, pu mai" which means,
''Leprosy, don't buy" which proves
that the Chinese are fully convinced
that the contagion can be communicated
by touching or eating anything which
has been handled by lepers, and it also
proves the great risk one unknowingly
runs in buying fruit or any other kind
ri produce coming from places whese
epers are allowed to go about at large.
Whatever some western" physicians
nay say as to the noncontagion of the
disease, think no sane person will
deny that the experience gained through
thousands. Of years in a country like
China must and Goes prove something,
as after all most Of our pres
ent knowledge of medicine is based on
observation and tradition. Besides, the
Chinese knew the use of vaccination as
4 preventive against smallpox more
than six centuries ago; and, although
they of course do not possess our knowl
edge OF surgery and chemistry, they |
have always been careful recorders of
history within their own sphere of
knowledge.
A Hash of Races.
At the dinner of the Holland society, !
MIR. Depew said the other night: ''The
American does not copy after the Eng
ish in being mixed race. Well mixed
N origin was the Briton when julius
Cesar met him; but since that time
rhof IN f11S;0nS Of Por,o.,