The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1890 Leprosy

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 102, 20 February 1890, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1890 Leprosy

In respect of the Dunedin leprosy oaso a medical man has declared it to be one of true leprosy, and expressed the opinion tbat the patient should be removed, "not because of the risk to the neighborhood, but because the man reqpiires careful nursing." He thus conveys the idea that this awful disease is noc contagious, and therefore a known leper may live and move among healthy people without risk to the latter. That this opinion is utterly wrong the following information on the subject will show, for which we are indebted to an article, "' The Dreadful Revival of Leprosy," by Sh* Morell Mackenzie, in the Nineteenth Century for December. He enumerates the countries in Europe in which it has the strongest hold, viz. : Spain, with its many centres of infection; Portugal, with has more lepers than any other European country, except Norway ; Italy ; Sicily, where the disease has been steadily spreading for the last thirty or forty years ; France, and the Mge&n Islands. It is spreading' in Russia to an alarming degree, and sporadic cases are said to occur in Hungary and Roumania. In Sweden the disease has almost died out. In almost every other quarter of the globe leprosy is rife at present, and whenever it exists it seems to be slowly, but surely, extending its ravages. Within the last fifty years the seeds of the disease have been sown in several districts where it was previously unknown, and already the accursed crop has began to show itself. As has been shown by a high medical authority, Dr Munro, the seeds of leprosy take something like half a century to mature, and there is every prospect that unless the natural evolution of the scourge can in some way be prevented a terrible harvest will be reaped before many years are past. It was imported to the Sandwich Islands about the year 1850 either by whaling ships manned by sailors from leprous regions, or by Chinese immigrants, and to Australia and America it was carried by the Chinese. It was conveyed to Salt Lake City by Mormon converts from the Sandwich Islands. Since France has extended^-hgix-colonial possessions French soldiers, sailors, traders and missionaries have fallen victims to leprosy in large numbers. In the West Indies the disease has been steadily extending its ravages for many years back. When New Zealand was first taken possession of by the English, a peculiar form of leprosy was found to exist, and was most common in a zone of about twenty-five miles round Lake Taupo Pakeha Maoris, whites who live much with the Maoris, or intermarry with them, become lepers. In India the number of lepers exceeds 250,000, and their numbers are still growing. The writer asks: " Can all this misery be prevented?" and does not hesitate to answer : " Yes ; only in one of two ways — by elimiuatir,: the cause of the disease, or by preventing its transmission." The former is impossible, for we are at present entirely in the dark as to the cause of leprosy. If, however, the origin of leprosy is one of the great unanswered riddles of the universe, there is not the same mystery as to the mode of its transmission. The evidence in favor of contagion is overwhelming. The contagiousness of the disease was never doubted till it nearly died out ; men ceased to believe in contagion when they no longer saw daity instances' of it. The whole system of medical police, by which leprosy was finally driven out of Europe, was based on the notion it was contagious, and no measures not based on that principle haye ever had the slightest effect in checking its ravages. The alarming spread of this loathsome pest in recent ' years is due to the fact that for some time the opposite doctrine has gained the ascendency and held captive the minds of men. It is a fact of the greatest significance that almost without an exception tlie men who know most of leprosy, who have lived in the midst of it, are those who believe most firmly in its contagiousness. This is not only true of medical men, but of the missionaries and others who tend the unfortunate sufferers. Suoh a consensus of opinion is not to be lightly set aside, and we hope the health officers of Dunedin will refuse to accept the dictum of the local medical man that a leper may be allowed to exist among healthy people without " risk to the neighborhood." It will be observed that in the Auckland case, mentioned in our telegraphic news, a more ser.sible course has been followed and the patient isolated.