The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-08-23
lEpRosY AND TUBERCULOSIS.

Two events of Importance in the meo
ical worlo of this year have been tt
congress held in London for the pul
nose of hearing reports upon the prot
ress made in the study of consumption
and the report of the commission of SUI
geons appointed to study the preya
lence of leprosy in the United State
The latter is of great Importance
this community, insomuch as ther
was danger, and it may not be passed
of an attempt to saddle all the lepeI
of the Nation upon the Molokai settle
ment.
I From the findings of the commission
there appears to be in the nelSnpor
hood of 1000 cases of the dread d1seas'
in the United States, although after tW'
years effort there has been located only
OFT cases absolutely. There were sen
out 5000 circulars to physicians ant
others who would know of the exist
ence of cases, and of these only 2,O0t
ELECTED replies From this number the
cases we're located. The New Yorh
Tribune, in a dispatch from Washing
| ton saws of the disease and its victims
"About one hundred are known to live
| IN New Orleans, many or wnom are Weii-
to-do persons of good families. In MIN
nesota about twenty cases have been re-
| ported. the disease there being found
mostly among the Scandinavians living
1 in the rural districts. In New YORK
seven cases have been reported, Whlle IN
| Chicago only three have been found SO
far. In San Francisco fifteen cases are
known twelve of which are confined In
the pest-house There are fifteen In
4 ny,1x fxxyn in
Dakota. In New Mexico there are at
least dozen, and Baltimore reports
three cases. The remainder are scatter
| ed throughout the country. Owing to the
| fact that three-fourths of the circulars
| have brought no replies, especially from
suspicious districts, the authorities esti-
| mate that only about fourth of the
cases of leprosy have been reported
1.-The commission will almost certainly
recommend to Congress In Its forthcom-
ing preliminary report in December that
national lazarettos be established in sew
eral parts of the country-one, perhaps,
at New Orleans, one in New Mexico, and
| another in Minnesota or Montana.
| generous appropriation will be asked,
large enough to cover the erection OF
fine isolated buildings, attractively
equipped with every imaginable convde-
fence for the comfort and pleasure OF
| the sufferers. By this means 1t Is hoped
to overcome the general antipathy to
isolation of the diseased, and thus re-
move the greatest obstacle in the way of
preventing the disease from spreading.
| mot the least interesting result ac-
| complished by the investigation is the
conviction of the experts that, notwith-
standing the widespread distribution of
leprous patients in the United States
and the increase in the last decade,
there is little ground for alarm They
are assured that the disease is not so
| fatal or SO readily transmitted by con-
tagion, infection, or association as tuber-
culosis 1t has also been shown that
cases are not uncommon where lepers are
| temporarily cured by couple of years
! treatment. Under ordinary conditions,
such as exist in New York, for instance,
| in the opinion of the experts, there is at
least a hundred times more danger of
contracting consumption than there is of
falling victim to the contagiousness of
| leprosy."