The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-09-07
A Cure For, or Prevention Of lsprosy
in Sight.

A bunch Of lrpers is IL pitiful sight. The
| disease seems to have an affinity for the
squalid, the dirty, the INDECENT, the lowest
class. In the Philippines where lcprosy
is more common than malarial fever here
one secs much or the disease. As vet
nothing has been none to colombo them
and 81 the poor afflicted beings live and
move and have their being among the
other inhabitants. However they seem to
realize that they are a people apart and
while they frequently on the streets of
the cities yet they scgregate' themselves
in many places, going in a bunch TO some
bariO on the outskirts of the villages and
there taking up their abode together.
They make their bread by begging. Fri
day is the day on which they make their
rounds. Twenty-Five OF thirty together
they come to the homes of the town peo-
pie, stunning no one, stunned by none.
They take each street in turn each house
on the street and in melancholy monodies
and sad voiced s~upplications request
bread for themselves and their families.
Il Hey SllN ~ cICllllouoC lligll VIlS llSstA vi OAN
house gives them something. A spoon
full of rice is sufficient. Each extends his
bony hand or dirty rag to receive the aims
and each is satisfied with what he receives
and goes his way %mnmbling "Dios mar
helGs', which expression is half Spanish
and half Wool, and being interpreted
means God repay you. The Wool har-
ing no word equivalent to our thank you
i'm his vocabulary must thus express this
Innovation of thank YOU by using the
expression taught him by the Catholic
Padres.
All these lepers know their condition.
They know that so far Us the things OF
this world are concerned their race is run,
their course is finished. Barefooted, in
rags and ~tatters, some with their fingers
| off at the first joint. some with their toes
gone, all with that hideous, dry, ashy col
ored skin, cracked and cOroded, horrible
in appearance and horrible in reality, an
unco squad, they beg from house to house.
No one turns them away empty handed
even though he gives not more than q
thimble full Of rice to each the head OF the
house, if he does not give it eagerly, GER
tainly gives it whole h~eartedly.
Leprosy has been the curse OF the ages.
1t is today one of the most horrible dis
eases known to mankind. But now
information from Washington to the
effect that three surgeons of the United
States public health and marine hospital
service after many months of investigation
have succeeded in growing lepra bacilli in
pure culture outside the human body, and
in glass tubes they now have cultures OF
these bugs that for ages have so cursed
mankind. The bugs are now thriving
nicely in their third generation.
This propogating the bug outside the
human system is the first step toward
perfecting a vaccine that will cure or pre-
vent the disease. Scientist must thus
s~egregate the bug 50 that they can study
his habits so that they may learn what he
thrives on and what will kill him. When
they learn these things they are then
ready to take steps toward making an
anti-toxin,
1t is strange how people may become
Injured to almost anything. In Aiken
there is a woman afflicted with leprosy.
Every other man in the United States has
read about her. She is quarrantined.
People are scared into cOnniption fits at the
bare mention of a leper in the precincts OF
the State and should the average man,
meet this woman on the sidewalk he
would go home and take a bath in con-
centrated solution. of mcrcuric cloride,
while in countries where leprosy is com
mon one never thinks of danger. In fact
there is not half the danger Of contracting
leprosy as there is Of taking consump-
ton, and consumption kills ten while lep-
rosy kills one.