The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-04-08
THE PESTHOUSE.
It's Location Must Now Be
Settled.
A LEPROSY CASE CONCEALED.
A Female Leper Isolated in the City
and County Hospital for Some
Time Past.

The Board of Health and the Health
and Police Committee of the Board of Su-
pervisors will meet at II A. NJ. To-day to
determine the question of a site for a
Pesthouse once and for ali.
The conditions which have given rise 10
this activity are twofold.
In the first place the existence of a case
of leprosy IN the City and County Hospital
was made public yesterday after its long
concealment, and in the second place case
Of sporadic smallpox had been discovered
in the very heart of the city, and hours
elapsed before the patient was placed be-
yond risk OF injecting his fellow citizens.
IL appears by the statement of Health
Officer Keeney himself that so disgraceful
and so foul Is the present PeSthouse that
no decent white man or white woman would
consent for moment to become an inmate.
AS result OF this conviction Or. Keeney
now admits that a white female leper has
Deen Tor some time an inmate of the City
and County Hospital, and has been kept
there because no decent accommodations
Tor her reception existed in the Pesthouse.
DIR. Titus, the superintendent of the City
and County Hospital, has been aware of the
facts, but has undoubtedly taken the same
view OF the case thai DR.. keeney has done,
namely, that there was no place TO send the
unfortunate woman to, land that the isolation,
which was practicable within the hospital
grounds, offered conditions of safety to the
community, while consistent with humanity
to the sufferer.
Dr. keeney made the following statement
yesterday 10 CALL reporter:
Some two months ago DIR. Titus tele-
phOned NE that he had suspicious case at
the City and County Hospital, which he be-
lieved to be leprosy.
II went out there the same day. l saw
the patient and found that she was suffer
Ing from very mild form OF leprosy, what
Is known as the auesthetic form. Sac was
in an Isolated room.
Il found her paralyZed as to half of the
lower extremities. Taking everything into
consideration l did not think it best to send
her to the .Pesthnuse. She was a white
woman, and it seemed TO me that as the
Supervisors were about erecting q suitable
place for The reception of such cases, l
should await their action.
olnce there was no possibility of con-
taEion Of any kind, the woman being kept
IN an Isolated room. did not see why |
should send her out to the PeSthOuSe in the
present condition of affairs, or to what is
called by courtesy the Twenty-sixth-street
Hospital
IheTe are negroes, Mexicans, Chinese
and kanakas ali huddled up there. 1t ia
an absolutely filthy place ana there are no
possible accommodations for a decent white
woman, leaving any question of humanity
out of consideration.
Dr. keeney was asked if 1t was true that
there had been eOncea lment of the smalIpox
case on Montgomery street.
Il viii simply say" replied DR.. Keeney.
THAT. so lar as L am concerned, such is not
the case. 1t was reported to me at II 80
O'CLOCK A. NJ yesterday that a Freuchman
was suffering from smallpox at the address
given. / saw the patient at 1915 o'clock
r NJ, and at 1880 O'clock the ambulance
was prepared and the patient removed.
DO net know when lie reached the Pest
house, but the premises were immediately
Iuml@ated and all the people in the house
yaccinated. am positive, from the coudi-
dillon OF the man when l saw him, that the
pustuleS had broken out within twenty four
hours, The period of incubation in the dis
ease IS from three TO ten days, but the
case had only been diseoyerabe as SMALLPOX
within the twenty-four hours"
Mrs. L. Mayhem. the leper patient at the
CITY and County Hospital, is living in a
small apartment adjoining ward II, in the
west wing Of the hospital buildings. She
has been hitherto totally unconscious of the
nature OF her at1liction, and il is presumed
that she will be mereifnllv LETT in ignorance
She has been seen by e. Fitch, an expert
In leprosY cases, and the nature of her NAL
ady has been placed beyond doubt.
Mrs. Mayhem is from Honolulu where
she had resided for fifteen years before
coming to this coast. During her stay there
she was married twice. and her present
husband is travelling in tile East with n
theatrical company. He has furnished
money for the care Of his wife in the hos
pital; He refuses TO believe that the woman
Is afflicted with SO terrible disease, but as
she kept place of public resort in the CAV
Hawaiian metropolis he can hardly be
skeptical as to the possibilities of the case
The patient is kept at the hospital await
ing Tie decision which will be undoubtedly
reached by the joint committee to-day
Inc most important question raised is
whether there may not be other cases OF
leprosy concealed in the city. 1t is no
secret that the Chinese cases are invariably
concealed. The motives which might
prompt the friends CT white patients,
especially when they belong to respectable
families, 10 save Them from the horrors OF
the place described by DR.. keeney must be
even stronger.
Yes, without doubt the patient is suffer
ing from leprosy," said Dr. George L.
Fitch, who is perhaps the most experienced
leprosy specialist in the city, when he was
interviewed last night by CALL reporter
at the City and County Hospital. 81 don't
believe though" continued he. That there
is any danger to the other patients from this
case.
There was a similar ease in the County
Hospital when II was located at North
Beach. 1t was in 1869 thai it occurred. A
man whose name l don't remember died
there OF leprosy. He had been brought
there five years before and had literally
rotted away, but during all this time no one
else caught the disease. The leper's wash
ing was done with that of the other patients.
lie was tended by one of the regular nurses,
the same as this case is, and in fact was
treated about the same as any other patient.
Miss DR.. Crook, the inferno who discov-
cred this case, told me day or two ago
that she had known of this woman in the
Sandwich Islands four years ago, and at
that time she was under quarantine for the
same disease However, the case was not
so advanced then as to be dangerous or
even TO be certain that il was leprosy and
she was allowed to escape. 1t was not till
about fifteen days ago that was positively
sure that the disease had really set in be-
yond doubt, but now | wonld be willing
to take my oath that the fact is true