Evening star., 1909-08-19
THINKS EARLY IS 4 lEPER
NORWAY EXPERT EXAMINES
PIECE OF SKIN.
But DR.. Bulkley Says Maybe He
Was FAXED" by Somebody
in Washington.

The question 'Is Early leper?'' has
spread beyond the confines of the United
States, indeed. spread across the broad
expanse of the Atlantic ocean to far
away Sweden and Norway.
An expert came to the National Capital
from Sweden. and told the local District
health officials that he wished to study
at first hand the famous question. And
now comes the word that a medical con-
vention. meeting this week at Bergen,
Norway, found this question most in
teresting. And one of the experts in at
tendance has ventured an answer. not
new. but adding to the bulk of answers
already given.
This expert is DR.. G. A. Hansen, head
of the leprosy hospital in Bergen, and the
discoyerer Of the leprous bacilli He has
told New York physician. the dispatch
es say, that he has examined section
OF skin taken from John r. Early. the ex-
soldier and ex-captain in the Salvation
Army. who was quarantined in the Dis
trict for nearly a year as a leper, and has
found the bacilli of the dread disease.
When Health Officer Woodward was
told about the answer given by the dis
coverer OF the leprOsy bacilli, he remarked
that 1T confirmed the answer given by the
health officer here in declaring that Early
is leper.
Early was released from quarantine in
the District to go to the Skin and Cancer
Hospital in New York for treatment. He
has now been released from that institu-
ton and is living in fiat in Brooklyn.
He has been declared by his New York
physician, DR.. l.. d. Bulkley, as practical
ly cured
A dispatch from New York. giving Or.
Bnlkley's view of the diagnosis says:
When Or. Bulkley was told Of the
dispatch from Bergen concerning Early
"a OF fHn fofn nn$
attributed to DR.. Hansen. He showed a
letter, dated February IL. 1909. from Dr.
Hansen in Bergen, in which the leprosy
eXpert-Dr. Hansen is said to have dis
on some specimens from Early's skin
which DR.. Bulkley had sent him for
diagnosis. DR.. Hansen wrote at that
time that he had not found the leprosy
bacillus in these specimens. and that
these specimens were not very good for
diagnosis. DR.. Bulkley declared that he
was surprised that DR.. Hansen should have
said he found leprosy bacilli in specimens
from Early's skin. since he had called
the specimens Bulkley sent him valueless
for diagnosis. He said that so far as he
knows no other specimens have been sent
to DR.. Hansen from Early's person.
"Dr. Bulkley said that only a month ago
he took two more punches from Early's
skin and submitted them to DIR. w. RI.
Parks, bacteriologist of the New York
city board of health, for diagnosis. DR..
leprosy bacillus in them.
.'Dr. Bulkley said that Early made his
usual weekly visit to the New York Skin
and Cancer Hospital today and was in
fine health and that the local skin trou-
BILE he had had practically disappeared.
He said that Early has not been treated
for leprosy at all. and If he really had the
disease 1t would have showed itself plain
ly by this time. Early is living quietly
in Brooklyn with his family at an adj
dress known to only a few of his friends,
as he is tired of the notoriety he has
fallen under.
"Dr. Bulkley declared that it would not
surprise him to discover that some Wash
ington doctors who had said Early had
leprosy had sent DR.. Hansen a specimen
from a real leper to deceive the Nor
wegian authorities and to gain support for
the defense of the civil suit which early
IS soon to bring against them for his
detention.
Washington politics. said the doctor
scornfully, are rottener than Tammany
Hail."