The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-12-17
FRIDAY, DECEMBER IT, 1920

, various ways it found entrance into Europe being spread to a. great extent by the returning Crusaders in the eleven- and twelfth centuries. Be tween the sixth and fifteenth cen turtles it was by far the most danger ous and infectious disease of which any account has come down to us. Not only is the disease terrible in it's effects, the hands and feet of the victims often sloughtng off, but the appearance of it is likewise most ap- palling, in some cases the skin becon- ing white and scaley and in others swollen and frightfully dscolored. In the early days it's whispered name was enough to proouce the most abject terror and 1t is scarcely possible to find words to describe the awful condition and treatment of the | victims. No position, however great | or powerful could protect one if he l was discovered with symptoms of the disease. He was universally ostracis- | ed and driven out to be with the rest. | To be a 1eper was to be an outcast beyond hope of any solace but the grave.
 All the larger towns in Europe had | a place especially set apart for its l lepers. This reservation was shun- | ned as though it were the door of | Hell itself. A boundary line was | drawn beyond which no leper could | at iSlx of c{a f death. If healthy stranger unwit- tingly wandered too near the leper | camp he was renose1essly thrust into it and made to share the lot of the inmates.
 During the night the miserable creatures crawled ,, to some exposed 1 hill and secured the food which hal
 been left for them there during the
 day, food which was furnished by
 the town authorities.
 Cases abounded in the sparsely set tied districts and their condition was
 even worse than those near the towns | Compelled to wrap themselves in sheets so that only the eyes were ex- posed they wandered about in the un- | frequented woods and the uninhabit- ed waste places, sustaining life as best | they could on roots, berries, and the | occasional food that was placed where they could get it by some one
 with little tenderer heart than the | average. They were obliged to car
 ry small bell and ring it to warn
 people of their approach and it need
 ed only the dismal tinkIe of the iep-
 er's bell to drive people away in ter
 TOT of their lives
 In the eyes of the civil law the
 leper was dead. His property passed to his heirs, his wife might marry
 again if she chose, and on his de
 parture for the camp of the outcasts | prayers for the dead were read owe,
 him, and to make the idea of deatt
 more complete a shovelful of eartt
 was thrown after him.
 This terrible disease has been slow.
 iy decreasing in civilized countries but
 within few years there were esti
 mated to be at least three million
 lepers in the world. Two-thirds O.
 these were in China. There hay,
 been a few cases here and there il the larger cities in this country eveI
 since the Revolutionary war. -l,
 most famous colony of lepers is tha
 on the island of Molokai in Hawaii
 which in 1902 had over eleven hun
 dred cases. This number has sine
 been considerably reduced and nov
 there is reason to hope that the mum Der will be reduced rapidly by tn
 newly discovered treatment.