Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-25
OF HAWAII
How the Loathesome Disease Was
Spread Through the Islands.
COMMUNICABLE OFTEN BY KISSING
Not Contagious if the Attendant is
Clearly and Careful.
THE MOLOKAT SETTLEMENT
Of The Evening Star.

letter by Mr.. Charles M. Pepper in your
issue of November upon leprosy as OBJ
served by him at Mookai. l desire to tes-
tify to its accuracy. This accuracy is ex
ceptional among the reports usually made
| by transient observers. 1t is found equally
In Mr.. Peppers descriptions Of things per-
sonally observed, and in his statements
| about matters learned by testimony. His
letters in The Star from Cuba were read
with interest, but hereafter any letters
from his pen will be read with peculiar
| confidence in their statements
Permit me to supplement Mr.. Peppers
| account with some knowledge of my own
| upon the subject as gained here during
| forty-f1ve years. l became a resident of
| the district where leprosy first appeared
| about seven years after that appearance.
| My first acquaintance with the malady was
| in noticing singular swelling of ear lobes of
| two boys in a school which l was teaching
| in 1857. The nature of the disease was
| not then known. In visit to China about
| two years later Dr. Hilebrand identified it
| as leprosy. In the meantime the able mis-
| sionary physician resident in the place,
| with whom l was intimate, had for several
| years been treating two advanced cases
| with arsenic and iodine. These were the
| first cases ever seen in these islands. They
| both were men Of high rank chiefs. One
of them had been to China and developed
| leprosy after his return. He was living on
| terms Of extreme intimacy with the second
| chief and communicated the disease to
| him. l never those first two lepers OF
! Hawaii The facts were derived from the
| physician mentioned above. The second
| case was the reputed father of the late
| Well-knoWn Queen Emma.
| From these two chiefs leprosy spread to
| their attendants and neighbours and in
| twenty years from its first appearance had
| extended to all parts of the islands. For
| many years it was popularity known the
|
| the name Of the disease became known, l
| found one of my former pupils, then about
| fifteen, with a fearfulIy disfgured face.
| Many other natives began to be commonly
| seen with similar Disagreement of features,
| the period of several years of incubation
| having passed, and that of active develop
| ment having begun. The rapidity with
| which leprosy spread and the extent of It's
| dissemination among the natives early
established its reputation here as highly
| communicable disease. The malady was
| began to notice incipient cases, ten
or more years after its original i'm
| portation. Ten years later, after the
| government began to segregate the lepers
| at MoOkai, there must have been not less
| than 1000 wel-developed cases in the
| Islands among native popula tion of $1,000
| l personally knew two families in which
three or four members, respectively, be-
| came victims. Both families belonged to a
| superior class of natives.
Many Children Affected.
remarkable fact was the large number
Of children affected by the disease. Later
Investigations have disclosed the true cause
| of this. After the microscope had revealed
| the true bacillus lepral, 1t was found that
| a chief seat or radius of this bacillus,
whose presence in the body is the cause of
eproSy. was the saliva of the mouth. 1t
| was evidently by means of the saliva that
| the disease was so rapidly communicated
| by the natives to each other, owing to their
peculiar habits. 1t has always been COM
| mon practice with natives 10 feed young
| children frC m their own mouths with food
previously masticated therein. l have often
seen this done. l once saw young princess
of five refuse to drink, except from the
mouth of her attendant, handsome girl
Of thirteen. The kissing Of children also
was excessive and promiscuous. In such
conditions leprosy was communicated to
great numbers of children, making it's ap-
pearance in them from the ages of seven
| to fourteen. Some thirty years ago there
was in Honolulu sad case of two young
children in white family developing lep-
| rosy, contracted from a native MUSE by
kissing.
| AT about the same time 1 was educating
| in my own family a half-white girl who
developed leprosy at the age of fourteen.
Her next sister developed it year later.
Inquiry showed that the two girls had
earlier been much in the care of a fond
native grandmother, who was one of the
earlier cases. in a district of which the
second chief above mentioned was the land
| lord. The disease was impaired by inocua-
ton (or inoSculation) not by inheritance.
The girls were taken by their father to
| Oregon, in order to keep them from Mo-
| lokai. They lived there in much isolation,
and died in about ten years.
Communication of the Disease.
Leprosy is rarely communicated in ordi-
| nary intercourse, without careless familiar
| ity, but in frequent touching of Iepers there
| is the chance of accidental incubation 1
roll Nh
| talking, carelessly paving the head of a
| leprous girl whom he had been officially
| inspecting. Her face was covered with
swellings. regret to say that the good
man died Of leprosy about fifteen years
later He had been permitted to isolate
himself in his own house. The three ladies
of his family, who lived with him all the
| time. are still in good health. The cele-
brated Father Damien was indefatigable in
mnistering to lepers and their sores but
very negligent of personal cleanliness.
Hence he contracted the disease, which by
greater care he might have avoided. No
other cases have appeared among the de-
voted Catholic priests and sisters at the
Molokai settlement, who, with well-ordered
habits, are considered as being In very
little danger.
The foregoing facts have been stated for
the purpose of indicating that leprosy is
really not a very communica bic disease. as
we were at first led to consider it-from
| observing its rapid spread among native
HawaiianS. Probably 1t Is communicated
solely by incubation or it's equivalent; that
is, by the direct Introduction of the bacillus
from the body Of a leper to the mucous
| membrane of the victim. or through a sore
or wound into the tissues where the bacil-
| lus can lodge and generate. One handling
a leper should be careful to cleanse the
| hand before touching with it his own eve
| or mouth. 1t may be said that leprosy is
| a far less communicable disease than tuber-
cular consumption. where the bacilli ex-
creted profusely in the sputa are dried, and
| permeate the atmosphere. to be inhaled by
others. 1t Is also incomparably less pain
full, although disfiguring and loathsome
Spread Due to Careless Habits
It's rapid spread among Hawaiians is due
wholly to their careless habits of living,
especially in former years, when less civ
| ilized than now. Hawaiians were always
| essentially devoid of the idea of sanitary
precautiOn. I have known of families