Evening star., 1896-11-30
GROWTH OF LEPROSY.
It's First Appearance I'm Europe and
It's Introduction Into Canada.

From the st. Louis Gohe-Democrat.
When a leper was picked up in the streets
of Paris few days ago and carried to the
ST Louis Hospital it was found that six
leprous patients were already there. and
the physicians did not exhibit as much con-
cern over the matter as the average man
might expect. The fact is. leprosy is not SO
rare as We have been taught to think and
throughout the civilized world the disease
is vigorously alive, claiming victims every
day of the year ard increasing lis hold in
cert ain countries with alarmi rapiity
Norway Is said 10 be tho mos. leprous
country in Europe and it is estimated that
over 500 are suffering from 1t tk..t. while
in Sweden the progress of the disease has
been so rapid in recent years that there ale
462 victims OF il. In Spain and Pcr: Ggal
there are numerous leper hospitals, which
are never without patients. and in Turkey
and the 1onian Islands 1t gains ground
annually There are over 500 lepers in
Crete, anu the latest statistics show that
there are lm,TB lepers in India. China
Japan, Hayti, Trinidad, Guiana. Venezuela
Brazil, Paraguay, Tonquin and Inio- China
are all infested with leprosy.
But when We come nearer home We fin.l
that the disease has made alarming pro-
Sress in certain quarters.
me Oldest leper colony in this part is
located at Tracadie, in the Province of
New Brunswick, Canada. Here probably
occurred the first death in North Anne rca
from ieprosy. 1t was nearly Sixty-fiye
years ago that a woman died in Tracadie
OF a peculiar disease. and was buried by
missionary priest OF the Roman Catholic
Church. The physician who attended the
case went to Europe shortly afterward and
visited all of the foreign hospitals to find a
parallel case, but he was unable 10 find
any one suffering from the same malady
While visiting in Norway he saw several
iepers. and upon mis- return to Canada he
11x.Ci fns y,rrlvr
case of the dead woman to have been lep-
rosy.
But the strangest part of the story of
how lep-osy started in that country was
revealed later. One of the four fishermen
who carried the body of the dead woman
to heI grave was in his shirt sleeves at the
time and the sharp edge of the coffin cut
through the sleeve into the skin. The coffin
haG been rudely made and the corpse nut
ir carelessly. Shiny discharge from the
body oozed through the wooden box ami
entered the punctured flesh of the fisher
nan. This caused blood poisoning. and the
man died short time afterward from the
same malady. 1t was about this time that
the physician returned and announced to
the board of health that the woman's dis
ease was leprosy. Inside of sixteen years
there were twenty leDers in Tracadie and
the provincial government had 10 take
steps to isolate them from tho rest of the
population. The I&zaret.o was a mise ra b.,
building, where the lei,ers were forced TO
i'e Aiiu Vic III great misery, OFTEN SI1er-
ing more from hunger and cold than from
the pangs of the disease. The inmates of
this building constantly increased, and lit
tie was done to improve their condition un-
til 1866 In that year the Good Sisters of
the Hotel Dieu, in Montreal, through Ger
tain representations of DR.. Bayard of Ira
cadie, undertook to mitigate their suffer
ings aid to build a proper lazaretto for
them The sisters arrived in Tracadie IN
,SiS to create the change they had been
planning, and while they immediately i'm
proved the condition of the patients. they
were handicapped for many years by the
Interference OF the local board of health
and government.