Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-18
DREAD OF LEPROsY
STORIES OF ORIGIN AND TREAT
MENT OF THE DISEASE.
Cruelty Practiced Upon Victims Of the
Loathsome Malady-Lepers
In Europe.
From the Boston Herald.

rum the boston Herald.
That the old fear Of leprosy is still strong
Is shown by the commotion on Cape Cod,
and there would be the same commotion on
Cape Ann, or in any inland village. II a
colony of the unfortunates were to be es-
tablished even at comparatively remote
distance from 1t. Mr.. Anger yesterday lift
ed up his voice at the Porphyry and insist
ed that lepers should be kept on an island,
but he did not say whether this island
should be Nantucket or Appledore. The
most terrible torture of the leper is his own
consciousness that otherwise kindly men
OF the world, If only they may not possibly
see him or know of his nearness to them.
This natural fear has been fed constantly
by superstftions and traditions, by his
torical associations, by needlessly cruel Gus
TOMS Is there the suggestion of a leper
within fifty miles of an educated and rea-
sonably coOl-minded man? He sees the
unfortunate while he is alive clothed in a
shroId, and he hears the mass said for
him as for the dead; he hears the wooden
clappers, the drum, the bell that signals his
dismal approach; he sees the leper's win
dow in the Catholic church through which
the wretched beings on their knees could
witness the great mystery Of the elevation
or the host Nor is he comforted by Swim
burne's poem or by Stevenson's romance.
NsSN~AS c~AA AOPAOoyS
1t has been said that the pious Crusaders
brought leprosy into the west, but the
disease was known in Europe long before
the first crusade. 1t was prevailing COM
plant In western Africa, and the rudest ne
groes excluded lepers from their society.
The disease once ragged fearfully in France;
II was common in Ireland, and hospitals
for 1epers were established in all the larger
towns OF Scotland; but the Kaffirs were
ND
tots escaped by their habit of greasing
themselves. At Bath, England in 1850
Ihere was a separate bath for lepers.
In the same century the traveller from
Dei1t TO The Hague saw poor solitary fell
loW-mortals dwelling in huts on the brink
of the water permitted to ask the charity
OF passers-by, who put food or money into
floating box cast out by the Ieprous
hands. Sherburn Hospital was dedicated
to Lazarus and his sisters as well as to
the Savior and the Virgin Mary, nor were
the lepers there so badly treated Each had
daily large loaf of bread and a gallon of
ale, land, betwixt every two, one mess or
commons of flesh three days in the week,
and of fish. cheese or butter on the remain
ing four; on high festivals a double
mess; and in particular on the feast of ST.
Cuthbert In Lent, fresh salmon. II 1t could
be had. If not, other fresh fish; and on
Michaefmas day, four messed on one
goose"
Cause and Cures.
Inc history OF the origin anu treatment
Of the disease reeks with folly and super
stition. Even Voltaire suggested that want
Of linen was one of the causes of leprosy
Is 1t true that the disease Is first observed
on the wrist and by a peculiar thickening
of the voice? The Arabians know two
kinds, the common or white leprosy and
the black, and they traced the origin of
either to an undue diet, as eating fish and
drinking milk, and arsenic Is with them a
favorite remedy. The Moslems regard the
disease as scriptural one on account of
its prevalence among the Israelites, who,
they say, for this reason were driven out Of
Egypt. There was a fantastical belief In
medieval Christendom that the Savior
was a leper. The remedies recommended
by the ancients were wild and extravagant
or disgusting and incredible. The mere
mention of the disease awakened terror
and despair. The feeling of centuries, even
elder Pliny, when he exclaimed: What an
anger and displeasure of the gods Is this,
thus to plague and punish us? Was 1t not
enough to have sent among men into the
world certain number Of maladies other
wise. and those not so few as 30O but we
of new? and yet see! as many as there be
of them coming by the hand of God, yet
men through their own excess and disor-
ders bring as many more upon themselves,
and be causes still Of further troubles and
mseries.'
Yet this same loathsome disease has
called forth the bravest sympathy and de-
votfon. Not only did Swinburne's amorous
clerk care tenderly for the leprous woman
that had disdained him; men and women
life to care for these rejected beings. FIR
Damien was not the first; nor will he be
the last in the roll call of such heroic
martyrs.