Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-26

CLAN priest and when he arrived at Molo-
kai, in 1873, he was an active. healthy
man Of fine physique and only thirtyfour
years. He remained perfectly well for
eleven years, at the end of which. in 1884,
he commenced to feel pains in his left foot.
In six months, during which the priest be-
lieved himself only victim of rheumatism,
the disease became manifest and after
period of nearly five years it had gradually
knawed into his vitals and claimed him as
a victim.
Race Suicide Not the Fashion.
The four score of lepers' non-leprous
children to be Molokai are retained
in the colony because their parents will not
consent to their transfer to the Kapiolani
home, at Honolulu, an institution founded
for the purpose of giving such little ones a
clean start in life. Race suicide Is by
no means popular on Molokai. devoutiy as
the health authorities wish it WERE Indul-
gent-indeed to a foolhardy degrees the
law which gives these infected parents the
right to retain their offspring on the island
1t would seem to the writer that the gov
eminent should not only prevent this op-
tonal retention of helpless children, but
take even a more radical step and enforce
race suicide in the colony. According to
Dr. George Henry Fox. clinical professor
of diseases of the skin, New York College
or physicians and Surgeons, leprosy is
doubtless hereditary: but is conta gous to.
a much slighter degree than is commonly
supposed, the husband wife of leper
often remaining perfectly free, while the
children suffer. Dr. Cofer. however re-
ports the case Of a man on the Island of
Maui. Hawaii. who lived fifteen years with
ms leper wife and had fourteen children
by her. neither he nor-at last accounts
the children developing the disease
The Path Cure.
The only treatment applied to the lepers
of Molokai is the so, called Goto method
used at the Ra1 vi To- r
an institution of the colony supervised by
Brother Dutton, Catholic priest The
more than hundred patients here are
hathed two or three times daily In hot wa
ter containing an infusion of "hichiyoo"
bark. "taifunshi'' and sulphur In con-
neGtlon with the bath certain tea and
pill or unknown ingredients, are adrninis-
tered. In the colony there is also the
Bishop Home for Leper Girls, containing
over a hundred inmates. 1t is noted on
Moiokal that lepers performing regular
manual labor or enjoying systematic phys-
lcal exercise show a much slower advance
or the disease than those leading an IN
active life. Some sufferers are able to pro-
years.
The new leprosarlum will receive forty
lepers at a time. l. will be located A.
some distance across the PERCEPTIONS range
which isoiates the leper peninsula whose area
Is but one-thirty-fifth of the entire island
The inmates will be given the most sci
entifc methods OF treatment developed by
| the wide world of medicine The germ, of
| ieprosy (bacllus lepIosD has been discov-
! cred, but much remains for thorough in
| qr:ry into curative methods. Various bac-
teriologists are now al work upon an anti
toxin for the disease. and now and then
! dispa tches from abroad announce progress
| along these lines. No experiments caus-
| ing the patients any discomfort or danger
| Will. OF course. be made at the institution.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. need have no fear that
| repetition of such methods as the Kenan
| experiments. famous in medical annals, will
be attempted at the leprosarium
| Experimental on Condemned Criminal.
kenan. condemned Hawaiian criminal.
| was inoculated with leprosy in 1888 his
| consent, also that of King Kalakaua's gov
| eminent. being given. Kenan's death SEN
| tenca was committed to Imprisonment for
| HE on condition that tubercle cut from the
arm Of a leper De transplanted to his arm.
| After the operation he was confined and
| kept under regular microscopic examfna
| ton. After he had been removed to MoIo
| kai and had died there of the disease .,
| was discovered that there were lepers in
| his family, and this intelligence put a
| damper on the claims of the experimenters
| that they haG proved the inoculabiity of
| leprosy.
We have leper colony also In the Phil
| ippines. where the insular government has
set aside for the purpose the island of
%uiioH. II was idtely estimated that there
| were In the archipelago over $500 lepers
! scattered in forty different groups The
Philippine government has been endeavor-
| Ing to collect all OF these cases and isolat
/ them upon Culion. The Mohammedan
Moros, among whom the disease is especial
| ly prevalent, believe that 1t can originate
| either from eating a species of fish known
among them as "ty yook,'' or from a visi-
| tation of divine wrath following certain
| personal pollutions forbidden by the Koran.
Placed in Fresh Carcass Of a Beef.
They treat their lepers by applying
| charms or amulets, the patient being taken
;, to some unfrequented spot in the woods
] or mountains where beef Is slaughtered
| and dressed up to the point of splitting It's
| spine. The leper. perfectly naked, is then
| placed in the cavity of the carcass and
| kept there twenty-four hours. during which
| the medicine men. amid a vigorous beating
| of tom toms, go through a series Of weird
| incantations supposed to transfer to the
| beef all of the impurities of the sufferer.
| The Moro theory that fish is the origin of
many cases of leproSy Is shared by the dis
| tinguished leprolologish. Jonathan Hutch
| inson, who has made elaborate researches
among the lepers of India.
Porto Rico has also It's leper colony upon
! the Isle de Cabras, at the entrance of San
| Juan harbor, and this is under the control
/ OF the territorial board of charities. Here
/ are isolated less than g. score of the unfor-
| Inmates, some Of whom attribute their NAL
| ady to bathing In salt. muddy sea water;
i others, to baths In cod water while they
were oyerheated. During the Spanish
Il regime in the island all lepers were sup
POSED to be corralsd In the suburbs Of San