Montana labor news., 1935-12-05
World Uide SurUeg
of LeprOsy
Leonard Wood Memorial Studies
Spread of Disease

Hist0ry's oldest, most feared,
most mystic rious disease is emerg.
ing from lis 5000 years of tradi.
tional horror and sin. No longer
are lepers turned into exile, deiied
as unclean. living ghosts Stunned
by friends and relatives. Under the
Leonard Wood Memorial has been
launched a worldwide survey Of
leprosy. says The Literary Digest.
Not until 1S4S did the pioneer
Norwegian leprologists, Daniel
Cornelius D~anielssen and Carl Will
lem BOeck, write the first compre.
hensive description of leprosy. In
1873 Armour Hansen, Danielssen's
son-in-law and his successor in Lep-
rosy work in Norway, discovered
what he thought to be the germ Of
leprosy.
Father Damien
In 1873 also Father Damien
Joseph de Veuster-a Belgian mis-.
sionary, voluntarily went among the
lepers depOrted TO Molokai Island
by the Hawaiian Government. Part
ly by himself and partly by the Gov.
ernment's aid he improved their
water-supply, dwellings and food
and brought the needs of the lepsr
before the eyes Of the world Rob.
ert Louis Stevenson came to his aid
and defense in "An Open Letter to
the Rev. DR.. Hyde" written ia
1890.
Father Damien himself died of
leprosy in 1893; but his successor,
Brother Joseph Dutton, proved that
n could deal with lepers without
contracting the disease. He died
four years ago Of old age and was
succeeded by the Rev. Peter
D'Orgeval.
From Molokal the work has
spread worldwide. A Scotsman
Wellesley c. Bailey, founded The
Mission for Lepers, a trail blazer
for sixty years in the relief and
eradication Of leprosy. With the
American Mission to Lepers, the
two organizations work as a single
worldwide unit aiding lepers.
More important still, bacteriolO-
gists have turned their attention
recently to leprosy, voluntarily ex.
fling themselves in leper colonies.
In 1922, Doctor Herbert Windsor
Wade, handsome, brilliant, militant,
went to the Culion leper colony.
With this best known of the re.
searchers in leprosy went his wife.
Dorothy Paul Wade, daughter Of a
socially prominent New Orleans
family, "the Florence Nightingale
Of the lepers."
Leonard Wood Memorial
Returning to the United States in
1925 Mrs. Wade appealed for funds
to carry on research. Out of this
grew the Leonard Wood Memorial,
for the Eradication Of Leprosy
founded in the memory of the one
time Governor General of the
Philippines. The worlds largest
leprosarium, Culion, and that at
Cebu, both in the Philippines, are
maintained by the foundation
But the Memorial has recently
entered on a new phase: a world
wide survey to discover how leprosy
spreads. Leprosy, despite past pro
gress, literally walks the earth. In
South America, Mexico, Central
America, the West Indies and the
Eastern Hemisphere it is present
and extends as far north as Iceland
and as far south as Australia. There
are 1000 lepers in the United States
Of whom about 400 are segregated
About SO walk the streets of New
York. In all 5000, 600 lepers live
throughout the world with only
$4,000 receiving treatment.
Leprosy cannot be classed as in
durable: $500 have been discharged
from the Culion leprosarium in the
last ten years and 10 per cent of
the $50 lepers at Carville are dis
missed yearly as arrested" cases.
Heading the world-survey as
Chairman of the Leonard Wood
Memorials medical board is Dr..
Hans zinsser, famous as a re-
searcher in typhus and as author
Of Rats, Lice and History"