Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-17
TO HUNT LEPRoSY CURE
WHAT DIR. BRINcKERHoFF rs TO
FACE IN HAWAII.
Will Study the Disease Where Father
Damien Met His End-Danger,
However, is Not Great.
From the Boston Transcript.

As a weH-earned reward for solid and
brilliant achievement in research work. the
appointment of DIR. Walter r. Brinckerhoff.
as director of the government leprosy re-
search hospital in the Hawaiian Islands,
may well be matter of special pride to all
Harvard men. Or. Brinckerhoff Is young
man to have charge Of SO important an I'm
dertaking, and the fact thaSleprosy has SO
long and SO thoroughly baf1ed medical sci
enee makes the compliment to him especial
~ notable. His task Is neither a light nor
pleasant one His appointment is indeti-
mite as to term. but 1t is fully known that
years will certainly be required to get valu-
able results. During perhaps five years, to
make reasonable guess, he will spend the
greater part of his time in the Molokai
settlement, which occupies peninsula OF
about ten square miles area, shut off from
the main mass of the island by barrier
of 3,000-foot cliffs. He win be surrounded
by what is perhaps the most htdeous de-
formfty disease can produce. made especial
ly ominous to the lay mind by the fame
and fate of Father Damien, who served
and died on Molokai. Fortunately no such
taking-on is in the least to be feared for
DR.. Brinckerhof and his stan of assist
Element will present little more real peril
than the City Hospital does for the staff
there.
United States a Leader.
To every American, however, the estab-
lishment of the new leper hospital and the
progress of research under Dr. Brincker-
hoff should be equally a matter of pride and
concern. We are accustomed to take the
great medical discoveries from abroad. but
at last the United States is itself leader.
Control OF yellow fever contagfon is speen-
did monument to our medical men. The
work Of our laboratories at Manila is the
most thorough and in many ways the most
successful done in the tropics. In the Molo-
kai station the United States establishes the
first government leprosy research labora-
tory on a large scale in the world Few
things, it would seem. could be more hon
orable than to pat a stop to this dreadful
disease. In trying to find the way We are
doing a great service to the world and are
fulfilling our responsibility to the many
thousands of lepers we have taken over
with our insular possessions.
IIeproSy shows some striking likenesSeS
to tuberculosis. The bacillus accepted as
It's cause, and discovered in 1874 by Hansen
of Bergen, Norway, closely resembles in
size. shape and manner of taking stains the
bacillus of tuberculosis. Another general
resemblance is that leprosy like tuberlocu-
losis. spreads most rapidly among ill-fed,
nl-housed and unsanitary populations Lep-
rosy Is not necessarily a disease of the
tropics. for 1t has been abundant in Nor
way and Iceland. 1t Is less readily COM
municated than tuberculosis, but given the
injecting source. leprosy, like tuberculosis,
TAXES Oh Tui-uoWH anu pilS SlCdliS
subnormal populations. This accounts,
therefore, for the actual fact that leprosy
is nowadays found chiefly in warm coun-
tries. Warmth itself is not the cause, but
tropical warmth makes barbarous and Ill
civilized peoples utterly careless of SANTA
ton and inclined to lack physical vgor:
and hence they are easy victims Of this dis
ease along with many others. Asia is
pretty certainly the source of the disease
and there 1t has existed since before Con-
fucius; Moses and whoever prescribed the
leprosy practice of the thirteenth chapter
Of Leviticus. were comparatively late
corners into the field.
Course of Leprosy.
From Asia leprosy spread into Europe IN
til. during the twelfth and thirteenth CEN
turtles, it became a plague of enormous pro-
portions. At that time Europe contained
some 10000 leper settlements. During this
period as a mark of the gravity of the dis
ease, flourished the famous order of San
Lazarus, whose master, until 1858, was re-
quired to be leper. The disease was
spread and stimulated by the Crusades, OF
which Voltaire says that their only perma-
nent result was the Importation of this
disease. But ne was wrong as to the time
of introduction. for it is mentioned in Eu-
rope much earlier. occurring even in Ireland
In the fifth century. The extent of the dis
ease rose and fell. being most widespread
when the vitality of the people was lowered
by long wars and their consequences and
shrinking In times of prosperity. The policy
of isolation and the better condition of the
people caused 1t to begin to wane about the
middle of the fifteenth century, and in one
hundred years ii had mainly disappeared |
from Europe. The present seats of the dis |
ease are among lazy shiftless and ignorant
people, who live on unwholesome food and |
of habit violate sanitary and moral laws
Among the prosperous and enlightened 1t |
does not spread 1t has been abundantly |
imported into the United States especially |
from Norway; but recent government in !
quiry enumerating only 27S authentic cases |
In the country. showed how wholesome food |
and habits prevent its spread. Beyond low |
vitality and long, intimate contact with dis |
eased persons. nothing is known as to its |
origin. Janathan Hutchinson OF England |
has argued much for its origin in the ca ting |
OF spoiled fish, but the scientists of the |
world have not accepted his hypothesis |
Actual beginning of research work at |
future. and probably more. So far the only |
national step taken is the selection by Sur |
gean General Wyman of the square mile OF |
land granted for this purpose by the ter |
ritory of Hawaii to the federal government. |
The hospital is provided for by the act of |
March, 3, 1905, which appropriated S100, 900 |
for hospital to contain forty patients, and |
the necessary equipment and other build |
ings; $4,000 was st aside for salaries up !
TO June 30 of this year; but that fund viii |
not be largely drawn upon.