A TERRIBLE DISEASE AND A TOUCHING ROMANCE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2236, 2 June 1881, Page 3

A TERRIBLE DISEASE AND A TOUCHING ROMANCE.

Muoh exoitement (says the " Liverpool Journal ") has been caused in London by a letter received from Dr. James Murphy, a physician of great renown at San Francisco, addressed to one of the chief physicians of St. Thomas' Hospital, warning him of a terrible discovery just made of the spread of leprosy amongst the whites of California. The horrible disease is well known to have existed for a long time among the Chinese immigrants, but has been until now confined to the Chinese quarter of the town inhabited by Chinese people. No notice had ever been taken of its existence, it having been considered, until now, an exclusively Mongolian disease; but at length it has attaokod the white population of San Francisco, and Dr. Murphy declares that so rapidly has it spread that in the tpaoa of two weeks no less than sixteen patients had applied to him for relief from this inexpresI sibly loathsome disease. " All of these cases," says the doctor's report, " were incurable. There is no question but that the Chinese are bringing leprosy to our shores. The disease may be propagated in four ways— By marriage with the leprous, by hereditary transmission, by inooulation, and close intimacy. These persons so afflicted contaminate the water in which they bathe, the beds on which they sleep, and everything they touch. There is also the possibility of contracting the disease by inhaling the exhalations from the body of a leper." The doctor earnestly implores of all medical men to investigate with the greatest minuteness all the symptoms presenting similitude to those whioh characterise the first absorption of the disease, and above all to examine the passengers on board the ships arriving from the Pacifio coasts, as a vast number of Chinese immigrants, in whom

leprosy had appeared, sent back from San Francisco to China, had contrived to get landed at one or other of the ports on the Pacific, whence they had taken passage for Europe, as any plaoe. appears to a Chinee better than hie own country when onoe he has quitted it, A sad case is quoted by the doctor. A young German bad oaught the infection from the Chinese porter employed in the warehouse where he was engaged as book-keeper. How he had become infected is not known, as he declares that he had never, to his knowledge, come into contact with the porter. It can only be supposed that it must have been caught by handling the bags of ooffee samples deposited by the leper upon the counter. After a cert am treatment at the hospital, the patient was discharged, relieved in some measure, but pronounced incurable. Some little while after his discharge the young man came to the doctor to ask him if he might marry. His history was romantic Ho had left his native place, Bremen, to seek a fortune sufficient to return and wed his fianoee, who had waited for him faithfully. He had written to tell of the woful affliction which had befallen him, and releasing her from her engagement, and receiving no letter of oondolenoe for his misfortune or of regret at the relsase he had accorded her in consideration of the distressing oiroumstances in whioh he was placed, he had been completely borne down by the burden of sorrow thus imposed upon him, when one day, after waiting a while in suspense, he was thunderstruck at beholding his sweetheart enter the lodgings to which he had been confined, in the outskirts of Ssn Franoisoo. Palling upon his neck, and bathed in tears, she declared that, so far from wishing to break off her allegiance, she only loved him all the more for what he was enduring. An uncle of hers had died and left her a considerable sum, which would enable them to live in retirement until he was cured—whioh she felt quite sure he soon would be—with her good nursing. Alas! the poor young man, who did marry the faithful girl in spite of the doctors warning, has communicated the leprosy to bis wife, who, from a fresh, blooming, healthy, country German frau, has become hideous to look upon.