The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-08-20
STEADY GROWTH OF LErRosY.
History of Its First Appearance i'm
North America.
From the Philadelphia Times

From the Philadelphia Times.
When leper was picked up in the
streets OF Paris few days ago and car
ried to the St. Louis hospital il was found
that six leprous patients were alread,
there. and the physicians did not exhibit
as much concern over the matter as the
average man might expect. The fact is.
leprosy is not nearly 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 and increasing its hold in certain
countries with alarming rapidity Norway
is said to be the most leprous country in
Europe. and il estimated that over 500 are
suffering from it there, while in Sweden
the progress of the disease has been so
rapid in recent years that there are 462 vic
Tins Of it. In Spain and Portugal there
are numerous lepers' hospitals which are
never without patients and in Turkey and
the Ionian Islands il gains ground annual
". There are over 800 lepers in Crete, and
the latest statistics show that there are
10O,O 600 lepers in India. China, Japan, Hal
ii, Trinidad, Guiana, Venezuela, Brazil,
Paraguay, TonqUin and Indo China are
all infested with leprosy.
But when we come nearer home we
find that the disease has made alarming
progress in certain quarters.
The oldest leper colony in this country
is located in Tracadie, in the province of
New Brunswick, Canada. Here probably
occurred the first death in North America
of leprosy. II was nearly sixty-five years
ago that a woman died in Tracadie of a
peculiar disease, and was buried by a mis-
sionary 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
to find any one suffering from the same
malady. While visiting in Norway he
saw several lepers, and upon his return to
Canada he unhesitatingly pronounced the
strange disease of the dead woman TO
have been leprosy.
But the strangest part of the story of
how leprosy started in that country was
revealed later. One of the four fishermen
who carried the body of the dead woman
to her grave was in his shirt sleeves at
the time, and the sharp edge of the coffin
cut through the sleeve into his skin. The
coffin had been rudely made, and the
corpse was put in carelessiy. A Shiny
discharge from the body oozed through
the wooden box and entered the punct-
ured flesh of the fisherman. This caused
blood poisoning, and the man died a short
time afterward from the same malady
1t was about this time that the physi-
clan returned and announced to the board
of health that the woman's disease was
leprosy Inside of sixteen years there
were twenty lepers in Tracadie, and the
provincial government had to take steps
to Isolate them from the rest of the pOpu-
lation. The lazaretto was a miserable
building, where the lepers were forced to
live and die in great misery. often suffer-
ing more from hunger and cold than from
the pangs of the disease.
The inmates of this building constantly IN
creased, and little was done to improve
their condition until 1866. In that year the
good Sisters of the Hotel Dieu, in Mon-
treal, through certain representations of
| DR.. Bayard of Tracadie undertook to nit
igate their sufferings and to build a proper
lazaretto for them. The Sisters arrived
in Tracadie in 1868 to create the change
| they had been planning, and while they
Immediately improved the condition of the
| patients, they were handicapped for many
years by the Interference of the local
board of health and government In 1885,
| however, they received full power to run
the lazaretto to suit themselves, and since
then the Tracadie Lazaretto has been a
| model of its kind. Not only was an ade-
! quate and comfortable building erected
! for them, but work and amusement were
| provided so that the patients found some
| contentment in living. There were twen-
| ty patients in the lazaretto when the Sis
| ters arrived, but since then over forty
| one men and forty men have been admit
! ted. SeVenty-six died in the building since
| the Sisters took charge, but the disease
| has been so checked that there are now
! less than thirty inmates.
The other leper colony is in the United
| States, and is located in the parish of Ib
| erville, Louisiana. known as Indian Camp.
| The lazaretto is on the Mississippi not far
| from the town of Whitecastle Leprosy APP
| peared in Louisiana before it was known
in Canada, but no active steps were taken
| to organize laZaretto where the patients
| could colonize together and live out their
miserable existence away from the rest of
| the world. The disease first appeared in
the state between 1850 and 1865 and it has
| gained ground through lack of preventive
measures ever since. 1t is comparatively
recently that the state legislature took de-
cided steps to check the spread of the
! disease and to stamp it out. Indian Camp
is now a community of lepers where every
precaution is taken to better the condition
( the sufferers. There are now tWenty-seV-
en- lepers at the camp two colored and
| twenty-five white, eleven women and six
| teen men, Lepers throughout the state
| are supposed to be sent to Indian Camp
when discovered, but there Is really no
| law yet which gives those In charge OF
| the camp police power to arrest patient
! and ship him to the colony. The state OF
| Louisiana has recently voted $4,000 to sup
| port the colony and the most influential
| citizens to make the home comfortable Tor
| the sufferers and at the same time so thor
| oughIy isolate them that the disease will
spread no further.