LEPROSY CURES.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1923, Page 4

LEPROSY CURES.

SYDNEY, Aug. 1

The Rev J. Eddy, who relinquished ministerial work ill Australia about ten years ago in order to become secretary to the mission to the lepers here, has returned from a visit to India and other parts of the mission field. Ho states that remarkable results have been obtained in the treatment of leprosy by chaulmoogra oil.

Nobody, says Mr Eddy, thinks of leprosy without remembering Father Damien, the hero of Molokai, and it was particularly gratitying to be able to state that from one institution alone in Hawaii, near to where that devoted priest laboured and laid down his liie. about 120 lepers bad been released on parole during the past three years, free, as far as science could discover, from the terrible disease.

In explaining the method of treatment. Mr Eddy said that medical .science was working wonders. Tts first work was segregation, then treatment, due regard being paid to diet anil livgicne. There was a tree which was indigenous to India, and which yielded bcrric-. the oil extracted therefrom being known as chaulmoogra. Tile virtue Ot the <*fl in the treatment cf lepers had been known for general ions, but its usefulness had been limited because of its horrible taste and its disturbing effect upon the digestive system. Kir Leonard Rogers, who was the honorary physician of the mission mi Calcutta, conceived the idea of extracting the active principle from that oil, and injecting it directly into the blood, and his treatment had been so successful that the Government of India tested it all over the country, and it was reported, alter twelve months, Vital 72 per cent of the eases treated were making satisfactory progress. Thai mode of treatment had been carried still further by American specialists, and it was estimated that in 70 per cent of the cases treated, the disease could now be arrested, att-l 2.7 per cent virtually freed from tile disease: that is. the patients were declared "hacteiiologically negative.” hi the latter case they could be safely discharged, as they were no longer a source of danger to others. Mr Eddy stated that leprosy and consumption belonged to the same family of diseases, and what chaulmoogra oil was to leprosy, cod liver oil was io consumption. He says i hut Kir Leonard Rogers was at present in London, and In- was hopeful, along the same line id research, to perfect a remedy for I überculnxis, and lias already reported - at i-.factory progress.