Gloucester County Democrat., 1894-08-16

lands is there closing his life. He was
probably good legislator in the day
Of his health, but cannot help think
ing what good thing it would be if all
the leprous Legislators Of the earth could
be put in some island by themselves.
Such banishment would be a mighty
thinning out at Albany, Harrisburg and
Washington legislatures, state and ma
tional.
The United States government could
afford to provide such Molokai, and
the moral lepers sent there could have
their Legislature and congress and board
of aldermen and army and navy all of
the same blotch. But while the Hawai-
ian legislator could be found out and
sent to the so called isle of precipices'
the moral leper is not SO easily desig-
mated, because he has the blotch not SO
much ON his forehead as on his heart
What every state and nation now needs
is Molokai, or isle Of lepers.
Leprosy Diagnosed.
Conversation about leprosy with a
former member of the board of health
for the Hawaiian Islands revealed to me
the following facts:
Question-In what part of tho system
does leprosy begin its work?
Answer-It attacks the nerve centers
Q.-I thought it was disease of the
blood?
A.-No. 1t begins with the nerves,
and just as the girdling of the trunk of
tree first shows its whitening results
in the tip end of the long branch of the
tree SO leprosy is first apt to show itself
in the paralysis or doubling up Of the
little finger, or in the toe, or in the lobe
of the ear. Sometimes there appears up
on the body shining surface. and it is
unimpressible. Prick it with pin, and
there is no sting. All the rest of the
patients body may be i'll perspiration,
but that spot remains dry. Sometimes
all the signs of physical disorder disap-
pear, and the disease seems gone. Then
there will come a leprous fever, and that
will throw out blush or effiorescence
that more emphatically announces the
progress of the disease Then all signs
of skin disturbance disappear, but after
the following leprous fever the case is
worse than before. So each retreat of
the disease is followed by more de-
cided advance.
Q.-Is it painful?
.A.-No. That is one of the mercies.
From the first assault Of the plague to
the hour of death there is an absence of
physical suffering
Q.-But is there no mental depres-
sion?
A.-Oh, yesl At the first acquaint-
ance of the fact that the disease is on
him horrid gloom settles upon the
patient, but after awhile slight hope
of recovery is born, and the incipient
leper tries all forms of cure, and no
form is SO absurd that will not recon-
mend itself as worthy of experiment.
And then all the time the patient thinks
it is something besides leprosy.
Q.-When victim of the disease is
first charged with having the plague, j
should think he would resent it?
A.-Yes, and the English law makes
it ibelous case for the courts if man
is unjustly charged with being leper.
Boards of health have to be very care
full in the work of segregation.
No Care Row Known For the Plague.
Q.-Are there any cases Of cure?
A.-The only cases recall are those
mentioned in the Bible-Naaman, the
Syrian hero, and the 10 cases that Christ
cured, nine Of them too mean to az
knowledge the divine medicament.
Q.-What in ordinary cases is the
velocity of the disease and how long
before 1t completes its work?
A-Well, have known one case to
last 16 years. think the usual durance
is five or six years.
Q.-Has tho leprosy different modes
in demonstrating itself?
Alt has. The tuberculous and the
an@sthetic. The former is most repul-
sive 1t swelIs and bloats and distorts
the face. The last sign of humanity is
blotted from the countenance. There
are cases of this kind called ''leonine, I"
for the reason that the face is SO wild
ened and enlarged and made severe that
the eountenance looks like lion. The
an@sthetic form is whitening, thin
ming out, wasting away, depletion,
a skeletonizing process.
Q.-Is it contagious?
A.-There are different opinions
about that. / have seen in married life
the husband or wife leper for years
and the partner in life always in good
health. have known leprous parent
to have a healthy child. was talking
on this subject with an eminent physi-
clan, who said to mot DO you see those
two children playing together? The one
is leper and the other my own child,
and / have no fear about contamina-
ton.
Q.-How many patients are there in
Molokai at the present time?
About 1000.
Here ended my conversation with the
former member Of the board of health
Of the Sandwich Islands. Up to date
the woe goes on. Only two weeks ago a
ship took 25 more lepers to Molokai.
The scene of par ing is said to be SO
heartrending that but few people go to
the wharf to witness it. The wailing
and bowling at the parting of families
as the filial and fraternal and paternal
and maternal bonds are broken is some
thing that haunts the memory. Not long
ago young man sentenced to the leper
island declared he would not be taken
alive. He shot three of those who were
attempting to segregate him and then
hid in hut until cannon on a neigh
boring hill bombarded the hut into a
wreck. Then relative went to the hut
and found the young man dead.
But do not let us give up discouraged
Leprosy as we'll as cancer and all the
other unconquered ailments will yet be
cured. do not know where the cradle
now holding the coming doctor is being
rocked, whether at Molokai, or in Hon.
olulu, or on the banks of the Thames,
or the Rhine, or the Tiber, or the Ural,
or the Hudson, or the Savannah, nor do
/ know from what college he will un-
roll his diploma, nor in what laboratory
he will make his experiments, nor in
what decade he will give proclamation
of the worlds emancipation from
diseases as yet incurable, but he will
go through the same prosecutions that
DR.. Jenner did because of his dis
covery Of way to halt smallpox, and
as DR.. Kelley has endured because of
his almost supernatural cure of alcohol