Leprosy on the Hawaiian

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 156, 12 June 1886, Page 6

Leprosy on the Hawaiian

• BY DR. M. lIAQONi n

LbpkoelyJs tine oldest known disease, and numbers its years, with history. .The Hebrews brought the affliction with them into Palestine, and the stringent of the Mosaic laws show how dreadful must have been, ita ravages „ and,, how great) the terror whils ( it existed,* So strictly 'was the rule of eegregation observed thati even icings afflicted with the disease were expelled from their thrones and shut out from sbciety.; , Syphilis had no history aiid no mention was made of it before the fifteenth, century. An interesting account was written of it at that time by a monk in a Latiu poem. ■ He expressed his dread of the new disease/ which spared neither laymen nor the holy ohurchmen aud even invaded the precincts of the papal throne , - Leprosy on the Hawaiian Islands does not (differ from the Biblical acoount of it among the Hebrews, , The same varieties are recognized wherever the disease exists. In truth, there is but one leprosy on earth: no absolute line separates one variety from the other. One form is inclined more to the tubercular formations , in the skin, while another especially affeots the nerves, producing ancesthesia and paralysis. But symptoms of each variety are blended and well marknd in every individual case, All intelligent resident physicians that have treated and watched the development of the disease from year to year, are unanimously of the opinion that ifc is eminently contagious. Or. Arning, a student of VirchoW and,Kocb, and a gentleman of high reputation as a medical microscopist, has spent three years studying leprosy iv Honolulu. He pays in his report to the Board of JQealth, "that the disease ia dependent on the invasion of the body by a microscopic germ (Bacillus Leprte) which has the power to increase indefinitely in the tissues. '' Therefore, he adds, '• we must look upou every single leper as a hot bed of contagion. Be breeds and multiplies a poison germ, and ia on thi9 account dangerous. • All such infected persona should be segregated." Dr. Trosaeau reported to the Government authorities after twenty-five years' experience, that he believed leprosy contagious, fully as much as syphilis, and says it is contagious by absorption and inoculation by the abroded portions of persons' bodies coming in contact. Dr. T. also believes that mosquitoes and flies are possible messengers of the infection by charging their billo with the deadly virus on a leper aoro and inoculating uncontaminated persons. Dr. Emerson, born on the islands, educated at Williams's and at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, a phyeician of skill and credit, has had charge of the segregated lepers on the island of Molokai, says : " Leprosy is assuredly contagious under the came limitations as syphilis. In leprosy the^degree of contagiousness is dependent on the external manifestations. When tbo disease is manifested simply by macula spots or by anaesthesia, it ia not so contagious as when it takes the tuburcular form as manifested by mucous patches and ulcers." There is but one opinion among the physicians on the Islands on the subject, and that, is that the disease is both contagious and hereditary, Hereditary leprosy develops in children between the ages of five and seven years. This is thought to be a guide as to the period of incubation in acquired cases. As for the treatment of leprosy on the Inlands, it has not been more or less successful than the treatment of the disease in other countries. The medical profession has simply to acknowledge that it has never cured a single case — not a reliable record can be found to-day of a single cure. No claim is made for any cure among the Hawaiians. All remedies which have been tried from time to time elsewhere have been tried there, and every new therapeutical proposition experimented with. No remedy has exerted any specific action. Some are of undoubted value in strengthening the constitutional powers and in retarding for a time the progress of the disease. Also good diet and favourable hygienic surroundings help to lengthen the span of leper life. But cad indeed is the fate of a leper —before him opens out a miserable existence of gradual decay, of helpless imbecility, and a life of despair a thousand times worse than death. There is a vague belief in the profession that in some mysterious way a relation exists between leprcsy and syphilis. This view is not maintained by any modern dermatologists. The microscope sine qua iion cf all modern investigation has demonstrated that leprosy is a parasitic disease. In every case of leprosy the bacillus lepra? is obtained. On the other nand, no bacteria or bacilli have been discovered in syphilis. There are probably no two skin diseases in which the differential diagnosis can be made with greater certainty. But the curability of syphiliaand the non-curability of leprosy decides beyond any doubt the distinct separability of the two diseases. About ninety-five per cent, under modern treatment recover from syphilis*, but how dismal the proppeots of a leper. Furthermore, the question has been settled beyond dispute that a leper will contract syphilis an<i with proper treatment recover from it, while the original disease elephantiasis has ever been known among the Hawaiians. — " Southern California Practitioner."