Evening star., 1916-05-14

mountains to carry new cells. but as
station men have nothing to do in the
was not considered drawback. Now.
however. a striking improvement has
been effected in the plan. The new
lamp, pouring out its flood of rays, is
so effective as signal AS well as sta
ton marker that the instrument man
will be provided with one and will sig
nal when he desires each station light.
Each lamp will. therefore, be on for
five or six minutes and off perhaps for
half an hour. This will mean paltry
cost of 25 cents night. and batteries
that will last much longer than the
period at first estimated, and the whole
outfit will weigh little more than twen-
ty pounds. 1t is believed the new light
Will increase the present number of OBJ
serving nights by at least rs per cent.
The interest of the United States
health service in legislative steps to
establish a a o |
Hand1inp home and hospital for
lepers under the super
NopAosy' vision of the service is
keener. perhaps. than in any other re-
cent measure aimed at restricting the
spread of specific malady. In spite
of the general belief that leprosy is
an exotic disease and that only per-
| sons who have contracted it in some
remote part of the world are afflicted
with it in the United States. it is be
lieved that there are from 800 to $500
cases in this country. Many of the
persons attacked are native born and
are known definitely to have contract
ed the disease from certain centers OF
infection that have long existed in our
own continental territory.
The public health service, through
officers detailed for special leprosy OBJ
servation in Hawaii and elsewhere, has
made a close study of leprosy and is
in accord with the practically unanl-
nous opinion of medical experts that
the disease can be prevented from be-
ing a menace to the country only by
the segregation of lepers in some such
way Is provided in the Ransdell
bill, which virtually nationalizes the
problem and turns it over to the public
health service.
There has been for years a strong
feeling in the minds of many citizens
that the leprosy problem was too inn
portant to the nation and too compli-
Gated and scattered to leave to the
various states. AS a consequence in al
most every instance in which a suf-
ferer from the dread malady is dis
covered in some locality previously
free from the disease the federal
health organization has been bombard-
ed with requests to take charge OF the
ice has had neither the authority nor
the funds to take such steps ii has
been necessary to leave the tremendous
new problem in the hands Of local
health authorities, who are in many
cases wholly untitled to handle 1t eff
ciently.
The Ransdell bill appropriates $780,
900 for the establishment of home
to be administered by the public health
service, and authorizes the surgeon
general of the service to admit all suf-
ferers from the disease who apply for
admission, all such patients discovered
| by the quarantine service and all who
may be committed to the institution by
health authorities of states and terri
| tories. The measure has received the
| Endorsement of the health officers of all
| the states and of the leading national
medical and health associations.
The recent hearings the Ransdell
| bill threw on leprosy the first flood of
| light that has Illuminated the subject
| for the American public, and furnished
| material to astonish and startle the
| average citizen. 1t was shown, for in
tstance, that the disease is not heredi
| tary and that there is a hitherto un-
| solvable mystery surrounding the
method of transmission. Whether the
terrible malady is passed from person
10 person by contact, inhalation of
| germs, assimilation of the organisms
or through inoculation of blood-suck :
t u,
| but it is known that once rooted in a
locality the infection spreads to per
| son after person for generation after
| generation.
1t was brought out by the hearings
| that in the United States leprosy exists
| in perhaps d mrjority of the states to
an unknown extent. the almost total
| lack of leper homes and hospitals and
| the inhuman persecution of lepers by
a hysterical public influencing physi-
clans, families ami communities to con-
ceal the true facts. In only three states
! of the forty eight. it was shown, are
| leper hospitals provided The result
! of this condition, according to public
health service officials and other au-
| thorities on leprosy, is that lepers wan
der or are driven from place to place.
| scattering the horrible infection as
| they go.
In regard to world conditions. testi-
| mony of the government and other
| medical specialists showed that the
origin of leprosy is lost in the past.
and that in the world today there are
! proba bly, between one and three mil
| lion victims of the disease, chiefly in
| India and other oriental countries. The
| chief lesson Of the world history Of
leprosy for the United States comes
| from Europe. where in the middle ages
the horrible malady swept over all of
| the countries from the Mediterranea n
to the Arctic, affecting tens of thou
sands of persons. The step which the
United states is about TO take now
| was taken in Europe then. More tina
| 10000 leprosariums were established.
the disease was checked, and finally
| practically died out
This. public health specialists main
tain. indicates the results that can be
expected to follow in the United States
| from the esta bli shment of adequate
national leprosarium. though the elini-
nation of the disease will be neces-
sarily slow, requiring perhaps many
generations. During this period. how
ever, il is pointed out. these things
will be accomplished: The unfortunate
| lepers can live in decent surroundings,
| with proper medical and surgical care
| availa BILE, and free from inhuman per-
| secution; the public will be protected
| from exposure to what is perhaps the
worlds most terrible disease. and con-
| centration of the lepers under super
vision of the great federal health
agency will permit scientific study of
| leprosy, ameliora ton of the condition
of many lepers by known methods of
| treatment. and perhaps even the clear
ing IN of the mysteries that surround
thc diScase and the discovery of she
means of permanently curing its unhappy
victims.