The Independent. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1895-1895, 1895-05-24

bacteriology in recent years might
open a door for more satisfactory
results. He thought the Board of
Health should have some money I
placed at its disposal to employ
the services of eminent bacterio-
logists such as DR.. Koch. He
mentioned the names of several
physiciana who had been investi-
eating leprosy in other countries
for many years. There was pro-
badly some natural cure for the
disease which might be dis
covered. Hitherto the search
for remedies had been confined
mostly to the vegetable kingdom
but latterly much had been done
in experimenting with mineral
substances. Referring to a
theory of the paper under discus
sion, that leprcsy was not self
limiting disease, the speaker said
1t would be hard to prove what
diseases were self-limiting or not
so. There was case in Mani
toba, Canada, of a man still living
who was an undoubted leper forty
years agu. Now, if there was one
aut entic case of self = limitation
of leprosy, it proved that the
, disease was in certain conditions
self-limiting.
DR.. Wood spoke of the advan-
tages of hospital treatment. In
his experience he knew of per-
sons suffering from different NAL.
aides who did much better in the
: hospital than when treated out
side. He referred to the curious
fact that some people seemed t..
have immunity from various
diseases, such as smallpox, scar
let fever, etc. 1t seemed as il
D some changes had taken place in
the cells of such persons systems
With reference to DR.. RUSSELL,
suggestion that money should bt
expended for meteorological inves-
1 cations, he said that all tn,
! discoveries in that science wer,
not made by the great leaders
s Many of them were made by thei
students. The Board Of Health
? was now making arrangement,
! for establishing laboratory 70,
making Investigations into th'
e bacteriology Of leprosy.
, DR.. Day referred to various
e epidemics that had swept owe
whole continents and died out
The Hawaiian people furnished
fresh soil for the propagation O
diseases. There did notappea
to have been any serious epid
emics in these islands before thei
discovery by Europeans a centu
. ry ago.
r DR. Alvarez spoke of the con
d troversy that had been going OF
II for years as to whether lepros,
= was cont gious or not. Hi
), opinion was decidedly tina
s it was contagious. An argu
IT ment to the contrary hat
been founded on the aIlege'
: small proportion of white peopl
j i, these islands who had con.
y tracted the disease. According
: t. the census returns and tn
t Board of Health reports, ther
u was One-halt OF one per cent. o
Q the English residents in the lepe
Q settlement on Mookai, and there
was nearly the same percentage
: of Americans there. This di(
I, not take into accou. nu nbe
I of white people who had undoubt
= edly contracted the disease bu
y not gone to Molokai.
DR.. Russell deprecated tn
i, presentation of mere opinion o.
this question. A solution if ob
tainable must be t rough scienti
4 fic methods. He laid stress o.
\ the value of inoculatiou of anima i
' as u means of getting dehnlt
information.
jGC p;
o Drs. Wood and Day converset
9 about certain monkeys that ha,
It bs1n inoculated in Honolulu b.