The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-20
LEPRoSY IN THIS CoUNTRr.
VARYING Views OF Physicians as to tho Danger
or ContnEion.

To THE EDITOR OF THE ~suN-Sfr: The con.
illusions of tho International Leprosy Confer.
encc, which has just closed its sessions at Dor.
lin, are not in accord with the report of DIR.
Fowler's committee of the New York County
Medical Society, which you quote in full in to-.
days Issue. II the international Leprosy Con.
ference Is right there is a danger to the com.
munity In the letting loose of even four lcpers,
whether these men wcro allowed TO escape last
Thursday night or last spring.
The report on lcprosy OF the County Medical
Society OF New York is dated Dec. %, 1896, and
! have tho highest authority for the statement
that the lcpers were let loose shortly after that
report was made. 1t was signed by three der.
matologists. a prominent physician, and not
one leprologist. At any rate, that report had
for its real object to back up the Health Com.
missioner in his desire to rid himself OF these
burdensome boarders.
1t Is impossible to shut ones eyes to the fact
that the dermatologists, as a class, are not the
fttest men to judge of the contagion or nom
contagion Of leprosy. They see one or two
cases q year, specifically, pcrfunctorily. The
leprologists, on tho contrary-that is, men living
or having lived in leper nsylums. in lcper coun.
tries. such men as Havelburg of Brazil, Aiming
OF Hamburg. Hansen OF Norway. Sedcrholm Of
Sweden, Alvarez and Mouritz of Hawaii, Smith
OF Canada, and a host OF others-affirm that the
disease Is contagious and isolation absolutely
necessary.
The four lepers let loose by the New York
Hoard OF Health may not c~ontaminate any OF
New fork's inhabitants at once, but in eight to
twenty years the harvest which they have sown
will certainly be reaped.
1t Is owing to this loOseness of local control Of
lepers that Pr. Goldschmidt OF Paris and have
advocated the formation OF an authoritative
central international body to prevent the inocu-
lation of leprosy from one country to another
and sowing the seed OF the disease in virgin soil.
All the lepers who come to New York are
foreigners. II the United States Government
could be induced by the decisions OF some inter-
national body to take charge of the lepers in the
Board OF Health would be to hand over the lep.
ers TO the general Government.
Key West, Fla, Is at this moment inoculated
from the Bahama Islands. There are there now
seven to ten lepers. There used TO be only one
or two. Recently four Icclandic lepers have
been captured in Manitoba. One month ago a
!eper was captured in Maine who had escaped
from Canada. Two lepers were recently found
in North Dakota; these were Swedcs. A leper
an asylum in San Francisco. l know many
more instances showing tho possibility Of the
spread Of the disease in this country.
i have Elsewhere advocated the setting apart
OF a portion OF the Yellowstone Park for a ma.
tionai leper asylum in this country. The climate
there, being dry, is contrary to the multiplica'
ton OF the bacilli and their activity.
Until Congress enacts a law for the control OF
iepers in the United States there will be some
II not, much, danger of the spread OF leprosy
from foreign emigration in the moist climates Of
the Atlantic and Pacific coast.
ALBERT s. NJ. d.
NEW YORK. Oct. 1s.