Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-02-16
CONCERNING LEPROS '.
The Gases at Toledo Arousing General In- tercst-Incurahic Nature of the Disease.

Especial C. lls.~lENldUnCC.
 CINCINNA1l. IT, u.-Thc discovery of two well G,i.f.,I c.s,s uf lcprosy in the lake shore cl;l ul f"!ydu cannot fail to start anew tltr discussion of the question ns to whotl.yr or noI thc dread disease Is contagious and Hereditary. At the pres Cnt time it aI41, .ss tu be the universal be- lief of thos, who laIr had most 10 do with the lcpCrs of Ihr sandwich Islands, where the sCOurEI las lrubatiy worked greater havoc than any hVro tlse on earth, that it Is both cUntaAiuUs and transmittallp from parCn. to child. No one sent to caro for tho lopcrs has csrIpcd unless his stay has been short. Every one will remember the case Of Father Damien, whose life among the lcpers as their spiritual euide ended so painfully and 90 lamcntably. Even if the charges against his personal morality arc accepted aS true, which they are not universally by any means, tho theory of tho infcctiousncss of lcprosy was borne out by his death, for he was man well versCd in tho art of hygicnic living and one who was careful tu take every aG- vantage of lis knowledge.
 The testimony of the lCpvr commission detailed by tho government to study tho scoureC in India is somewhat ut variance with the views of those who have most closely studied it in Hawaii According to q report recently made by this Commis- sion, lcpr0sy has not increased of late years, though it's victims are not universal ly separated from the clean in India. Fur thCrmorC, the commission boldly asserts, the children of lcpcrs are not always taint cd. ThCIc is some connection, accidental or otherwise. between dampness of climate and tic prevalence of the disease; but, contrary tO Ihe belief entertained by many scientific men as well &s the unlcarnCd, there is no evidencCc whatever of CounCc- tion between lcprOSy and fish dict. It is admitted that there Is possibility, though a remote enc, that lcprosy is Cuntagious, but the general spread of the disease is not attributed to COntaIiun. and there are not wanting cases of healthy persons marry ing lCpCrs and themselves remaining sound and well.
 The commission further reports, and this might reasonably bo expected, that there is direct connection between dirt and disease with regard to this as well as many other human disorders. Thcro are moro native lcpcrs in proportion to total population than white, but this prcpOn- derance is not attributed tu racial but rather 10 sanitary cauS,'=. \otwithStaud- ing the immense amount of labor done by this commission, which employed hun dreds of agents in every part of India, no new light is thrown by the report upon tho origin or possible euro of the disease It is still hopclcssly incurahlc, and its causes arc wrapped in inIpcnetrabIe mys- tery.
 Although it may not be within the knowledge of the general reader, lcprosy was once almost as prevalent in Europe as it is no% in India. It was stamped out by the most cigid and mcrciless sesrega- tion of the infected, of whatever rank or social standing, and it is only within a very few years that cases have begun to appear among CauCasians.
 L. G. RoSsEAUx