CURE OF LEPROSY.

Shannon News, 18 September 1923, Page 3

CURE OF LEPROSY.

4, SYDNEY, August 1. The Rev. J. Eddy, who relinquished ministerial work in Australia about 10 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. He 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, ,hers of Molokai, and it was particularly gratifying to be able to state that from one institution alone in Hawaii near to where that devoted piriest! laboured! and laid down his life, about 120 lepers had been released on parole durings the past three years, free, as far as science could discover, from the terrible disease. t

In explaining the method of treatment, Mr Eddy said that medical science was working wonders. Its first work was segregation, , then treatment, due regard being paid to diet and hygiene. There was a tree which wias indigenous to India, and which yielded berries, .the oil extracted .'therefrom being known fo,r generations, bu‘t its usefulness had been limited because of its horrible taste and its disturbing effect upon the digestive system. Sir Leonard Rogers, who was the honorary- physician of the mission in Calcutta, conceived the idea of extracting the active principle from, that oil, and injecting it directly into the blood, and his treatment had beeri’so successful that the Go.vernment of India, tested it all over the country, and it was reported after 12 months that 72 per cent, of the cases treated were making satisfactory progress. . That mode of treatment had been carried still further by American specialists, and it was estimated that in 70 per cent, of tlm cases treated the disease could be arrested, 25 oer cent, virtuallv freed from the disease; that all the patients were declared “bacteriologically negative.” In the latter case they could be safely discharged os they were no longer a source of danger to others. Mr Eddy seated that leprosy and consumption belonged to the same family of disease, and what chaulmoogra oil was to leprosy, codliver oil was to consumption. He says that Sir Leonard Rogers was at present in London, and he was hopeful, along the same line of research, to ’perfect a remedy for’ tuberculosis, and has already reported satisfactory results.