Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-14
LDPERS ARE CURED.

If DR.. Thomas J. Biggs, a former sur
geon of the United States army, is on the
right track, the new century Will rejoice
to see the dread scourga of leprosy, if not
totally removed from among the host Of
Ills to which flesh is heir, at least reduc-
ed to a minimum. Startling as. this an
nouncement may seem, stranger still is
the means which DR.. Biggs proposes to
employ to rid suffering humanity Of the
awful pest. This remedy whose effectiye>.
ness he hopes to demonstrate IS nothing
more nor less thar the deadly venom Of
the cobra. Curious, too, is the fact that
the idea of inoculating the leprous pa
tient was suggested by the savage demon
WorshiDping hill tribes Of far off India.
AS there are more cases of leprosy with
in our territory on this continent than
is popularity supposed, and especially as
we have just annexed a colony of these
u~nfortunates with the Sandwich Islands,
the importance of DR.. Bigs's discovery, il
the result of his Investigations justify his
hopes, canno be oVerestimated. Success
would place him alongside Jenner, the or
iglnal exponent of vaccination, and San
arelli, the isolator of the yellow fever
bacillus.
DR.. Thomas j. Biggs, in addition to
having been a surgeon in the United
States army, has served as instructor at
the New York Polytechnic and afterward
as physician and surgeon in the New
York city prisons. For the last few years
the doctor has established himself at
Sound View hospital, at Stamford, Conn.,,
which, by the way, is the old homestead
OF the late Lester Wallack.
II am sorry that / lave not a leprOsy
patient here at the hospital to help me
demonstrate my theory the doctor said,
"but l can YOU with any
number of the other term of the equation
in the form Of cobras"-of which he has
a choice assortment.
st1Nhn fooi &c ~ opy,tir,1 mad thn coicrtyct SCI
am planning an enlargement of my place.
with a view to accommodating about 125
patients, confined entirely to the rarest
eases, for the purpose of experimentation
with leprous subjects, as we'll as Others,
and pursuing my interesting researches in
that direction. My efforts in behalf of the
despised leper are IN consonance with 9TH
err experiments quite as interesting in
their way, but a special endeaVOr is now
directed toward the possibility of curing.
leprosy with the venom Of snakes. l have
perhaps given this subject more thought
than any other recently. When the ex-
perimental department of my place Is
completed I shall have permission from
the state authorities to isolate a few Incl
pient cases with a view of eff
fecting cures, but at present l must
confine my experiments in that direction
to such cases as are under state care IN
New York and elsewhere.
II first became interested in leprosN
during my surgical experiments at tho
government posts in the west and south
west, and after considerable travel in
Mexico md elsewhere. My most interest
ing eastern case was a Chinaman from
the Quantung district of the Celestial
Empire, which province, as you know, is
regarded the world over as the cradle Of
leDrosy. l found this man, as others I
have worked over. a sailor of low degree
of intelligence. which fact always mill
tates against professional success. and a