The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-20
LEPROSY
IN EUROPE
How it is Spread
by Colonial
Work.
LEPER HOSPITAL
IN GERMANY
One Proposed in France-Lax
Spanish Methods-Disease
in Scandinavia.

many, SO marked an increase in the num-
Der of cases of leprosy in Europe tnat
the matter is receiving serious attention.
There are even alarmists who say that
western Europe is on the eve of another
outbreak of the disease such as followed
the return of the Crusaders.
The question was brought up before
the French Academy of Medicine in 1885
and 1888. In Berlin, in 1897, there was
an international medical conference to
consider precautionary measures to pre-
vent the spread of the disease. On May
q last DR.. Besnier of the French
Academy of Medicine declared that it
was advisable to establish in France
national leprosy sanitarium where per-
sons tainted with the disease might be
isolated
Taking this state of affairs for his
text, NJ. Dastre has contributed to the
Revue des Deux Mondes a study of lep-
rosy and the present danger of spread
of the disease. He points out that in two
regions in France leprosy has existed
continuously since the middle ages. These
are Brittany and the neighborhood of
Nice. The Nice lepers are supposed to
be descended from leper colony that
dated back to the Saracen invasion.
AS recently as 1883 two distinct out
Alpes- Maritimes coast, causing the death
of some twenty persons. Individual
cases of the disease are still found in
the neighborhood. In Brittany leprosy
in the seventeenth century was very
widespread and it has never been entire
ly stamped out.
In a majority of the recently imported
cases from the French colonies in the
Orient the patients are Government en-
ployees, commercial travellers, mission
aries soldiers and sisters of charity. All
told it is estimated that the proposed lep-
er colony in France would begin with
between 300 and 400 patients.
Germany established a leper sanitarium
| two years ago. Up to 1910 the disease
| was unknown in Russia. A few years
| ago it appeared in the Mcneil district.
causing the death of nineteen persons.
| In 1899 seventeen districts around the city
were found to be contaminated and the
sanitary department of the German Gov
eminent opened a leper hospital to which
all sufferers were forced to go and in
which the isolation from the outer world
was complete. The regulations on the
| subject are very strict, as was shown IN
| the case of a German merchant who
came home to enjoy a fortune which he
| had amassed in one of the tainted
colonies and who was found to be suf-
! fering from leprosy.
| He was ordered to move out of the
town forthwith, purchase a country
| house from all nPiphbOrS and
then live absolutely isolated from the
world under penalty of being removed
to the leper hospital The authorities
even went so far as to designate the
particular room in the house which the
leper and each of the members of his
family were to occupy.
| Great Britain, with more foreign pos
sessions in which leprosy prevails than
any other country in the world has al
ways fully protected herself from in
vasions of the scOurge. In the thirty
years from 1868 to 1898 only ninety-six
imported cases were reported.
In Portugal it is estimated that there
are in the neighborhood of 1000 cases OF
leprosy. while in Spain there are a GER
tain number of breeding places of the
disease. The lepers in Spain are not iso-
lated They work in the fields and act
as shepherds. They are avoided only
when the manifestations of their disease
are particularly pronounced.
There is one leproSy-infeSted region OF
Spain which has a curious history. Ii
. is Sagra in the Province of Alicante
Leprosy was unknown there until 1850
; when it was introduced by man who
; had returned from the Philippines to en-
; ioy the fortune he had acquired. Tht
case was so far similar to that of thu
, German merchant already described
; Spanish methods are not as thorough
going as German and no restraint wa
, put on the 1eper. He communicated th'
disease to his friends first and it grad
ually spread to the nearby villages o
Jalon Parent and Orba. Within few
years more than 200 persons were pro
2 nounced lepers, and only recently a
D many as $50 of these unfortunates wer
$ still living.
In Italy the lepers are only 100 or s.
: in number and are principally limitet
t to a few small groups in Liguria an
, Sicily In Greece the lepers have tn
e saddest lot of anywhere in Europe. The
t are forced to take refuge like wild ami
d. mails in caves and huts remote from thei
n fellow men. Il seems to be a settle
: conviction in the popular mind that tn
only thing leper ought to do is to di
:, and be as quick about it as possible.
|, There are many lepers in Turkey. 1
o Constantinople alone there are, accord
h ing to an eminent Turkish authority
e Zambaco Pasha, no fewer than 900, VIII
roam about freely and get their living b
q soliciting aims
one of the worst leprosy-scourge
4 countries in Europe in modern times wa
u Norway, where in 1856 there We're n
fewer than 5000 known cases. One thin
% regarding the disease was established
Norway beyond peradventure, and thf
is that by isolation, and by isolation onl
can the plague be stamped out. D
u Hansen obtained a decree from the Co
eminent providing for the isolation
' the infected and then caused five lep
hospitals to be established. In 1890 Il
number of Iepers had fallen to 500, al
today there are not more than $50 lie
4, in all Norway. This is overwhelmir
NJ proof of the efficacy of isolation
stamping out the disease.
Prof. Neisser of Breslau has isolat