The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1892-03-18
LEPROSY AND THE PUBLIC.

Inc discovery last week OF leper
in hotel acting as a pastry cook has,
not unnaturally, drawn sharp public
attention to this disease. The Chinese
leper unearthad last week is the fifth
or sixth in five years. This is not a
large proportion in city Of 1000, 900
people. The just and general impress
sion seems to be, however, that, large
as Philadelphia is, this is five too many
Theories aside, there can be no
doubt that fifteen years past have seen
wide public education in regard to lep,
rosy. 1t would have been hard then to
find many who knew that leprosy exis
ted in this country All know this now.
Louisiana has had leprous colony
since 1855. In Tracadie, Nova SEQ
tia, the disease has existed since 1896.
Leprosy reached this country from
Norway forty years ago, and cases
have been known ever since in Iowa,
Minnesota, and Wisconsin, though the
inquiry of DR.. Holmhoe in 1863, of
DR.. Armour Hansen in 1880, and of
the Iowa Health Board showed that it
has been steadily disappearing. In the
case Of 100 leprous immigrants DIR.
Hanson found the offspring free of the
disease to the third generation.
San Francisco opened its leper hos
pital in 1876 and it has never been
without inmates since. Every large
city has an occasional case and there
are more under private practice than
the public imagine. All told. however
there are not, Dr. Allen estimated in
1886, over $50 lepers in the United
States, though the number in 1871 was
placed at 1873. 1t is probable that the
real number is larger, and it would
surprise no one to find that 500 or
1000 were scattered through the coun-
try. 1t is, however, satisfactory TO
know that the universal testimony is
that leprosy tends to disappear under
the conditions Of American life, and
many mild cases yield to treatment.
In other countries leprosy by no
means decreases. 1t spread with great
rapidity in the Hawaiian Islands until
the sternest separation was enforced.
Surgeon Major Pringle, of the Madras
Service, said three yeers ago in care.
full paper that leprosy in India was
growing at the rate Of 1000 or 5000
cases in year. While the census of
1881 showed I3I,6IS lepers equal to
40, 900 in the United States = the num-
Der Of Indian lepers is now estimated
at aso,ooo The recent Leprosy Com
mission collected wide evidence of the
increase of the disease and recommen-
ded that the policy of segregation
should be removed This was aban-
doned in 1867 in India, O., the opin-
ION of the London College of Sur
geons, and no one seems now to doubt
that this advice was unwise. In Nor
way separation since 1886 has reduced
the number of lepers from 5000 to
1000. On the other hand, the aboli-
ton a generation ago of lazar houses
in France and England-and in both
countries lepers are treated IN open
hospitals ami permitted to mingle with
the population-has been attended
with an increase of lepers, slight but
appreciabie. Making all allowance
for the incr ased knowledge of cases -
which always creates the impression
of increased number--Sir Morel Ma
kenzie was probably right in declaring
that the declaration of the London
physicians] that the disease was: non
contagious has been followed by its
visible increase in the civilized world.
Yet it would be rash to declare i
contagious. The original cause Of true
leprosy, the bacillus lepr@, discovered
by DR.. Hinsen, can in all probability
transmit the disease by incubation,
and probably, through intimate con.
tact. Within certain limits the disease
is hereditary, though this is by no
means invariably the case. In weak
races it spreads with great rapidity, as
=. T.lo.,le n-1