The Indianapolis journal., 1898-07-04
THE LEPRosY BUGABoo.
Ownership of Hawaiian Islands VIII
Not Spread the Disease.

AdzlSdS lily JOuIudl.
1t is not true, as stated by a United States
Senator in debate, that in acquiring Hawaii
we acquire country where the foul dis
ease Of leprosy is indigenous to the SOIL
Hawaiian race, either by Inheritance or
through the workings of climatic causes,
and it is quite certain that with the passing
of a few generations it will entirely disap-
pear from the islands.
1t is not possible exactly to fix the date
when leprosy was introduced in the Ha-
waiian kingdom, but the period between
1S25-30 is approximately the correct time,
and therefore the disease is of comparative
ly recent origin. The manner of its importa-
ton is as uncertain as the time, though it
is believed among the natives that the Chi
nese brought it. Indeed, the name for it in
the native tongue Is mai pake which trans
lated, means Chinese sickness. Many rea-
sons have been given for the great spread
and prevalence of the disease among the
islanders. Some have laid it to the fish diet,
others to the lack of salt, but others still,
perhaps more justly, to a contaglon very
tives, such as eating from a common dish
and the passing of pipes from mouth to
mouth.
Up to 1866 leprosy was not regarded as
contagious by the island people During the
previous ten years 1T had spread so fast that
it seemed probable that the wf.Ole native
population would soon be extefniinatec. It
was estimated by writer of the time that
fully six thousand cases had made theis APP
pearance as early as 1860. In 1866 the gov
ernment passed an act compelling the isola-
ton or leprosy victims, and from that day
to this the number in the islands has stead
lily and rapidly diminished until now there
are but 9S1 cases in the whole Hawaiian
kingdom. This diminisrm ment has come
about through Deaths for there is no cure
for leprosy, and with the isolation of the af-
f1icted and the removal of the chance for
contagion the new cases have fallen Off year
by year until 1t Is safe to say that the final
extermination of the plague is very close at
hand.
A year or two ago a congress of physi-
clans was held in Berlin for the study OF
this strange disease. The results of their
deliberations were formulated in These
bacillus leprae All are agreed that only
a human being can be the bearer of this
bacillus and it is fact that leprosy it con-
of danger to those around him, and the dam
ger grows the more closely the patient asso-
ciates with Others and the worse the gem
him. The opinion that leprosy is hereditary
has been losing ground in recent times. while
the view that 1t is contagious has gained
advocates. The part of the body from which
all leprouS persons during their entire sick
ness send forth the greatest number OF
bacilli is the nose. Just as tuberculosis be-
gins at the ends OF the lungs so leprosy
begins at the end of the nose"
There are conditions in Hawaii, however,
that battle all the theories of the medical
men, or, at least, modify them. Under the
laws of the kingdom and the republic, q
man is accompanied by his wife and ALI
his children when he is sent away to the
leper settlement. There the family may
dwell together for years without any adj
plague. In the Hawaiian leper settlement
are men and women who were born there
of leprous parents and have themselves
married and reared children and in neither
generation has the disease made its APP
pearance. In such cases neither heredity
nor contagion was sufficient to spread the
plague.
The Hawaiian leper settlement is located
on the beautiful island of Molokai, about
thirty miles from Honolulu. 1t is a broad
and fertile district and is ever covered with
a luxuriant Verdure. Here the patients are
attended by eminent physicians who come
from many countries to study leprosy, and
by skilled nurses. 1t is little world by
itself, where men give and take In mar
riage, rear families have schools and
churches, and are governed by laws enacted
by themselves. Such as are able are en-
pected to work, but the wants of the colony
are abundantly supplied by an annual ap-
preparation of $150,000 year made by the
Hawaiian government. 1t is heavy bur-
den, amounting to an annual tax of about
S1.50 for every person, but the islanders
consider it money well spent, for the disease
is rapidly being stamped out. When tho
United States assumes control the exter-
rnination is certain to proceed even faster,
for undoubtedly we will bring into service
better sanitary methods and more regid
rule of isolation In the latter respect the
Hawaiians are not as strict as they might
be. For example, they permit anyone TO
visit the leper patients, and separate the
well from the sick only by a slender fence.