Fourne found that Toured, a village near Nice, was, up to 1850, free from leprosy. During this year, the family, M., engaged a leprons servant, and fol lowing this both M. and his wife con tracted the disease; subsequently in the family G., with whom the M.'s had asso ciated, a cousin of the family G., his wife and three children, became affected.
Ghose saw a case in which the wife be came infected by her husband. After the death of her husband she returned to her former home, a village free from leprosy, where she lived in the house of her brother. The brother became affected; and during the next six years three per sons in the neighborhood.
The infection of physicians and clergy men in contact with lepers (Dr. Robert son, Father Damien, Father Boglioli, Pastor Becker, etc.) are well known. These cases are only a few of the great many which can be found in the litera ture. Those mentioned are particularly conclusive and direct. E. O. Jellinek (Progress of Med., Feb. 1, '99).
In some "settlements," "lazarettos," or "pest-houses" these unfortunate pa tients (some of which may not be leprous and be suffering from tuberculosis, sy ringomyelia, or syphilis) are practically assimilated to criminals awaiting the death-penalty, while neglect, both gen eral and professional, is insidiously act ing as executioner.
About a league off the eastern coast of Vancouver Island, and separated from it by the waters of the Gulf of Georgia, lies the pretty little island of D'Arcy. . . . Hidden away in their little cabins under the grateful shade of the fir, with their hot blood burning out their life, the vic tims of this plague are slowly dying with their faces to the rising sun. . . .
Following the policy of isolation, mo-s—t notably exemplified at Molokai, in Ha waii. and also adopted at the Tracadie Lazaretto, in eastern Canada, the Vic toria City Council, eight years ago, re moved the victims to D'Arcy Island, where a line of huts, all under one roof, were erected for their accommodation.
. . Here the unfortunate sufferers are regularly supplied with rations and properly provided for without imperil ing public health. . . . Every three 77l012thS the sanitary officer of the city of Victoria visits the settlement with a sufficient supply of food for the following quarter. . . .
As our dory grates on the shore, and we hurry up the incline to their homes, the real wretchedness of their condition becomes evident. . . . Every develop ment and every type of this loathsome disease is apparent in the little group be fore us. . . .
The monotony of the existence of these unhappy creatures can hardly be de scribed. No change in its recurring mis eries is noticeable save the transforma tion which conies over their little world with the return of the seasons. . . .
Since the establishment of the station only one white man has been incarcerated upon it. He was shunned by his Mon golian fellow-sufferers, and, as in a com munity of this kind, the patients are dependent upon one another for mutual assistance, the white victim speedily sank, from neglect and loneliness. . . .
The station is maintained on the prin ciple of the strong helping the weak (!).
The supplies, including the coffins,* are placed in a storehouse, and each man helps himself as necessity requires. Ernest IIall and John Nelson (Dominion Med. Monthly and Ontario Med. Jour., Dec., '98).
rAll italics are mine. C. E. DE M. &worm.] In the Leper Colony at Robben Island the lepers receive almost no medical at tendon, owing to the neglect of the med ical officers. Transportation thither is practically equivalent to imprisonment for life. Protest against such methods of caring for these unfortunates. Jonathan Hutchinson (Med. Press and Circular, Sept. 26, 1900).
Such neglect on the part of munici palities — such wretchedness — is not compatible with modern civilization. Sanitary regulations to protect com munities involving the sequestration of innocent sufferers should not destroy with one hand to save with the other. All should come in for their share of the benefits, if equity is to prevail and if the cruelties of the dark ages are not to be perpetuated. Consumptives, in ebriates, the insane, etc., enjoy all the advantages of well-appointed and com fortable sanatoria; so should the leper receive his share of all that human com passion can afford to relieve him of physical sufferings and of the mental torture that ostracism entails.