The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1904-04-12
FISH PONDS
AND LEPROSY
mt and where the disease might be
Continued from page hve)

'sent and where the disease might be
studied.
| DR.. Ashmead says:
Professors Jordan and Evermann's
report, from which I extract these
| interesting details, says page 1907:
/ The maintenance of these ponds
should be encouraged as much as pos
sible, as they are of great assistance
in keeping up regular supply of Ger
tain species of fish at all seasons OF
the year.
81 beg leave to differ from this con-
/ clusion of the eminent ichthyologists.
From the Psychological point of view
those fish ponds of Hawaii constitute a
| serious menace to the healthy popula-
ton. While, perhaps, it would be
impracticable to advise their oblitera-
ton altogether by filing them up, yet
/ If such a thing could be done wisely
that is. without offending special inter
ests, it would be the greatest blessing
/ to future generations, for in all prob
ability they are infected. What is
more practical, however is the wean-
ing Of the race from its great love Of
| fish for food and dJ,ouraging the
]
| Hawaiians to eat meat, to drink milk
and to keep those ponds permitted to
remain, free of mosquitoes
| In conclusion l may add, that for
| some years I have been the exponent
of the theory of a double intermediary
host function of mosquitoes and fish,
as propagators of leprosy. especially
| as it connects itself, with the japanese
custom Of eating raw, living flesh Of
the carp, a fish which lives on mos
! quitOes and their larvae. In Japan it
! is the rice fields and swampy provinces,
the mosquito-infected localists, which
have the most lepers.
Taking together these two circum-
stances relating to Japanese: first, that
they are raw-fish eaters, never meat
eaters, and second. that the country
abounds in mosquitoes( the whole room
must be mosquito-netted at night for
comfOrO, insects which are eaten by
the very fish that are themselves eaten
raw by the people, and that most lepers
are found where mosquitoes are most
plentiful, I am prompted to dispute
the advisability of encouraging leprous-
stricken Hawaii in it's fish and mos
quito-pond culture. 1 think that it
would be better to educate those peo-
pie against the use of an exclusive fish
diet, which make the fish pond indus
try profitable. Besides, multitudes of
mosquitoes must breed in those ponds,
who feed on lepers and breed their
larvae and die in the water to infect
the fishes. We should above all edu-
cate them against the use of raw fish
flesh which might carry spores of lep-
rosy. We should introduce for their
benefit new culture, that of hoof and
horned cattle, whose flesh could take
the place of fish, besides supplying
them with milk which is antagonistic
to the development of a spore into
leper bacillus, which is supposed to
require two years. the period of incu-
baton of leprosy in human flesh. An
absolute milk diet, in my opinion is of
more consequence in the treatment of
leprosy than any medication. No chill
dren while at a mothers breast were
ever known to become lepers. No child
was ever born leper; the youngest
leper ever known in Hawaii was three
and One-half years.
"Leprosy will destroy fish eating
races unless they change their mode of
alimentation. No race has ever escaped
leprosy except by changing from fish
to flesh. Even the Japanese race is
doomed unless rice and fish are ex-
changed for meat and milk
LAS to fish ponds in a leper country,
they simply are an abomination."