The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-09-27

. ment. Their policy was to chase tn
lepers away. with the result that the
fed to the swamps, beyond the habita
lions of man, where they married an
brought up leper families.
Thus it was that the Lafourche lepe
colony arose. composed of refugees fror
the Acadian settlements, who foun
peace and quiet in the swamDs.
number of these, driven from New Or
leans, found refuge in the Metairf
country back of the city, now a pros
porous suburb, but known in earl,
Creole days as la terre aux lepreuX
the lepers' land Gable gives an ide'
of public sentiment on this subject il
has ''Jean-ah Poquelin.''
But, although the matter was pressed
upon the Louisiana Legislature by thu
health authorities. such was the popular
prejudice that no action was taken unit
1894, when the General Assembly Great
ed board of commissioners of the
Iepers' home, gave it a small appropri
alton and endowed it with the power tC
arrest and confine any proved leper il
the home. The difficulties the board
encountered in establishing a home
have been referred to. The Indian
Camp place which was finally settled on
contained 800 acres, an old dilapidated
plantation house and several cottages
falling to pieces.
1t was found difficult at first to in
duce the lepers TO enter the home, If
was so bleak and unattractive. Then
the conditions We're improved and lepers
voluntarily sought the home, and there
is reason to believe that every leper
in Louisiana is now confined within it's
walls
Thus the disease has been eradicated
in Louisiana after being allowed to
shoulder in the State for nearly a
century and a half. In the home at
Indian Camp, however, a still greater
triumph was to come.
Leprosy had previously been regard
ed as ineurable, and because of the
offensive condition in winch it left its
victims it was proclaimed the worst
of all diseases. In the Louisiana home
were collected cases in all degrees of
severity upon which it was possible to
try all remedies and modes of treat
ment. In the last twelve years 101
lepers have been treated, Sc men and
45 women, negroes and 90 whites.
For ten years the physician tried ar
senic, Fowler s solution, cod liver oil,
chaulmoogra oil and strychnine. The
last two combined produced the best
results
But these alone would not suffice, and
the physicians found the best treat
ment one of nutrition. The patients
were accordingly required to take daily
hot baths, to eat plenty of wholesome
food and to spend as much of their
time as possible in the open air.
In 1904, ten years after beginning
these experiments, the home was able
to announce, that it had cured the first
case of leprosy then known to be cured.
1t was a boy of IS, who had been in
the home two years. Almost doubling
their own success, the boy was de-
tanned by the physicians for year long
er lest the disease might return, but
at the end of that period, when not a
trace of it had been found for twelve
the boy was discharged as
cured.
The next year, 1905, another patient
was pronounced cured. woman of so, |
who had been admitted five years before |
with her son, also ieper. Because of |
the progress the disease had already |
made in this case the patient was de- i
tanned year andia half in the hospital |
after the cure was announced, to make |
sure that there would be no return.
The son, who is "A, is improving and !
will probably be discharged as cured i
N year or two.
A third cure was accomplished this |
year, when a woman, aged 30, whose !
Amily is of high social standing in
New Orleans, was released as perma-
lentIy cured
Of those VINO remain behind eight
ire well on their way toward cure. All
tctive LESSONS of the disease have been
arrested, and the only symptom re-
naming is the. CHASTITY fermentation,
he white or bronze color of the ieper,
which will take some time to wear off.
In three others the disease has been
rrested after it had made great prog
ess and they had lost arms or legs
rom it, Eighteen are classified as i'm
roved but the disease not yet arrest
d; ten. are classed as stationary, the
isease neither advancing nor retro
,rading, and only two of the forty-one
inmates are declared hopeless and GER
ain to die from the disease. The
wo last have been in the home almost
iIce it was opened. and We're admitted
fter the disease had already made /
Teat progress with them
Such is the difference of results be-
Nc6H the 1CdI anu tIlS III Ulcll LtSSlt-
cent of the leper on one hand and the
Intelligent and scientific treatment of
he disease on the other. Louisiana has
ccomplished in a few years the task,
believed impossible, of crush
lg out the disease.
Recent congresses of Iepro1ogists have
the fear that the disease was
Increasing in America and Europe II
of their closer connections
18th the East. The United States has
nnexed several hundred cases of it il
Hawaii and the Philippines and the
aestion of how TO deal with the prob
EN- has been discussed in Congress.
lie Importance of the results achieved
4 Louisiana is thus the greater
The visit of Archbishop Bienk TO the
apers' home, the services held there
nd the erection of a chapel will I'M
uestionab bly, exercise a good influence.
he example of the Archbishop has in
crested many others in the welfare OF
IIr