, 1909-05-01

~ OuIf 9Ou OCLNCi UlIG l6Dt Il ICOln lIa
struggle for life, which is doubIy hard and
bitter for those, who see their fingers and
toes fNlllng off III pieces, you often secure
that the sickness goes to sleep and is arrest
ed. Give him food and clothes, baths, medi-
cine and bands to dress his wounds. then
they will heal, the eruptions of the srckuess
lose their violence, aud the whole evolution
tends towards the "dry FORM" which il
much more benign and includes greater pos
sibilities for recovery than the tuborous and
here socalled "wet form" whi1h is a malig-
nant one.
A modern Lepor Asylum must offer to the
inmates such conditions Of existence, that
they GLADLY enter the Asylum without feeIDu
the loss of their liberty and without feeIin%
any tendency towards the unsteady. yogo,
bond existence out Of the ASYLUM wbIcL
offers so great danger to the healthy com
mu1ity.
The patients who are still able to work
ought to be occupied IN such kinds of WORK
as they like and cun do they can work their
own provision grounds, 80 to fish, make
ioiners work and so ON, SO that they contri-
butte u little to their own and the other
patients support. There must be paid q
small compensation for the work they do, to
e%nliyen them aud to prevent them from idle
ness, but all products from The leper's own
hands are to be used in the Asylum itself,
and can under nc conditions come out in
town amongst healthy persons,
In twenty years, we hope, that lepro4y
can be stamped out OF these islands, if VOW
only look out for immigration OF other lepurs
from the adjacent foreign islands.
For the sickness is not hereditary, as still
commonly believed by the public. If the
disease were hereditary we should be fight
ing against it under grievous conditions by
isolation alone, for we could never 60 to is)-
late children Of leprous parents 50 long as
these children did not show any symptom Of
TINT disease.
No the disease is not hereditary it looks
only SO. because the danger Of contagiou is
always greater in the intimacy Of family life
You all know instances Of families IN which
several members, father, mother, children,
or more distant relatives, have become lepers.
But this is due to contagion.
We now come to a question OF which l
must speak to you before closing. How
shall the community deal with children of
leprous parents Society simply never
should allow leprous parents to keep their
children. They should be taken away from
them and educated at public cost. The
mission to Lepers in India and the East
has created in India and in China r lot of
ASyIulnS IOf Cnllur6n Oh IepFOuS pHI6hth, Cu6
SO called "Untaimted Chiidren's Homes"
and the results from these institutions have
been most surprising, and many children
have been protected against Their parents
sickness, which not all of them could have
escaped in the leprous Family Home, We
need still here q little asylum, which could
take up the abandoned children Of the p9r-
ents admitted to Richmond. Hitherto tn y
were taken IN to Richmond, not alone she
children born before the parents ADMISSION,
but also children born at the Asylum. From
1888-1909 15 children have been born at
Richmond, most part of them died, no one
from leprosy, but several of them after II
shorter or longer stay in this fearful place
were sent back again to the fnmjly. What
has their fate been or what will il become?
You SOC near my side a little girl born IN
1904 at the old Asylum. whore her mother
still IS living and where she has brought IN
to the world six other children with different
boating men. This child's father has not eS-
oRpel his fate we know now that he has
been injected with Ieprosy. The child, who
lived 2 years and 4 months at Richmond, has
apparently hitherto no symptoms, but she
Is educated in town amongst healthy ch'I-