Charlevoix county herald., 1916-04-22
COLONY NOT
PLACE OF DESPAIR
DISEASE. 1T is STATED, is NOT AS
BAD AS is COMMONLY
BELIEVED
SUFFERERS MAY ENJOY LIFE
Remarkably Free From
Pain

New York.-Few stories of terror
lose anything in the telling, especial
ly when that telling has been repeated
from one generation to the next for
hundreds of years.
Leprosy is a dreadful and relentless
dis ase, but not half so black as it is
popularity painted in our imaginations,
not only that it spreads with extreme
difficulty if at all, in civilized coun-
tries, indeed, only in their uncivilizec
corners and little islands of barbar-
ism; but it is not half so deadly and
remorseless in its attack upon the un
fortunate individuals who have actual
ly fallen victims to it.
Instead of the diagnosis of leprosy
being equivalent to sentence Of
death by painful and lingering meas
within few months or years at the
outside, fully half, if not two thirds,
of its white victims either recover
with only few scars or numb spot
or two to show for their experience,
or reach stage of arrest in fair
condition of comfort and effiG iency, or
live 10, Is or 20 years until they die
Of something else.
The average life, even OF cases
which are sufficiently well advanced
and clearly marked to be discovered
and sent to leper colonies is from IL
to Is years after their admission, and
over half the deaths which occur in
cur large modern leper hospitals,
where lepers are carefully kept, are
from pulmonary tuberculosis.
The disease most commonly makes
It's appearance either upon the face,
hands or the feet, which fact sug
gested the theory of its transmission
through the bite of insects OF throu I'll
house or soil or infections or through
vermin. 1t produces either fissures, or
tumors, breaking down into deep and
slowly progressing alterations, which
girdle and finally amputate the fin
gers, toes and segments of limbs.
But it is exceedingly slow in reacd.
ing or seriously affecting any Of the
Great vital organs, and as, by most
merciful clemency of fate, it attack
the nerve trunk of the arms and
limbs at very early stage; indeed,
travels up them toward the body and
blocks them off or paralyzes them wei
in advance of it's alterations it nurnbs
in advance the parts which il ravages
so effectually that its progress is sur
prisingly free from pain.
Dramatic stories are told Of white
men residing in the tropics Who have
first discovered that they were lepers
by catching a falling lamp chimney
or thrusting their hands too near or
into a flame and never feeling any
pain or knowing that they were be
ing burned until the smell of their
scorching skin reached theil nostriis.
A leper colony or Hospital, dis
tressing and pitiful as the general
idea of it is, so far from being a
place of gloom and misery and
blank despair, or revolt against fate.
is one of the most cheering and con
vincing proofs of the unquenchable-
ness of the human spirit and the in
credible powers of adaptation and
making the best OF a situation, by
the pluck and wit of man.
When colony numbers sc or more
with cases in all stages of the disease,
some members of the colony will be
found able to work at almost every
necessary trade and occupation, so
that it can be made almost self sup
porting.
Some of them are partially crippled,
but they ride or drive, or are carried
about by their comrades, and the fact
that they must die sometimes within
Is or 90 years soon loses its edge. Ia
deed, their prospects are not so re
motely different from those of most
OF the rest of us under average ci:-
cumstances in that regard.
This is the course and prospects or
the disease in those who still remaiL
in the tropics or the. region in which
they contracted it. For those who IeS-
Cgnize the disease at a reasonab'"
early stage and promptly leave the
climate in which they caught it, the
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