The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-07-28
ANOTHER WORD, DOCTOR
WHAT ABOUT KEANU AND
FATHER DAMIENi
Notable Cases Which Go to Disprove
DR.. Trousseau's Medico-P olitico
Theories.

Many old residents of this city will
doubtless remember the case of Keanu,
who had been sentenced to death and
was afterwards offered the alternative
of execution or to submit to be inocu-
lated with leprosy. He chose the
latter. The incubation was one of
many experiments made and recorded
by DIR. Aiming, who was specially en-
gagged by the Hawaiian Government to
study the natural history of the con.
tagium of leprosy. Previous to making
this experiment Dr. Aiming examined
all of Keanu's relatives and keanu
himself very thoroughly but could
find no trace Of leprosy. The man
himself was the personifcation Of
healthy manhood.
On September goth, 1884, DIR.
Aiming injected pus from a graduating
leprous ulcer into a blister which had
been produced on the mans right arm.
Similar pus laden with leprosy ba-
cilli was rubbed into scarified portion
Of the mans left ear. On the left fore.
arm deep incision was made, and in
the wound freshly excsed portion of
a tubercular nodue was embedded.
Four weeks after the incubation the
patient complained of pains in the left
shoulder, and afterwards in every joint
of the left arm, and shortly after there
was painful swelling of the nerves.
The wound healed with the formation
of keloid scar, and five months after
the incubation there was waxy granul-
alton tumor in the scar, in the juice Of
which leprosy bacili could be detected.
Six months after the incubation the
patient seemed to be we'll. Sixteen
months after the incubation bacilli
could still be found in the juice of the
keloid, but on June 18th all traces of
them had disappeared. In Sep.
TENDER, 1887, Keanu showed the full
development Of tubercular leprosy.
A photograph of him taken at
that time shows the wel-known
swelling of the hand and left side of
the face and ear, ard particularly at
the place where the incision was first
made. The man died from leprosy in
five years from the time OF incubation,
but DR.. Aiming had previously left the
Islands. DR.. Swift of Molokai seemed
to think that the fact that members of
Keanu's family afterward developed
leprosy weakens the incubation the.
DRY in this case, but Dr. Aiming him
self says in a recent paper, referring to
DIR. Swift's opinion that it is improba
BILE that the disease could have reached
such an advanced stage in five years
In order to prove that this may be
possible l will mention a welI-known
leproSy case, which took still more
rapid course-the case of Father
Damien. In July, 1882, Father
Damien fell i'll with neuralgia in his
left foot. On the 25th of November,
1884, l examined him and found the
typical analgesia, with atrophy Of the
skin on the outer side of the left
foot, accompanied by swelling of
the superficial peroneal nerve, and |
did not conceal from him my dag
nosis of his disease, which amounted
to leprosy. in 1886 the first infl-
trations into the facial skin appeared
and in July, 1889, the poor man was
dead In this case the whole course
of the disease, from the very first
symptoms until ending in death, only
occupied seven years, and only three
years passed from the first appear
ance of tuberous symptoms. | could
mention many more similar cases OF
an equally rapid course of leprosy,
taken from my Hawaiian experiences,
though such instances are not of fire.
quent occurrence"