Nuhou, Volume II, Number 7, 5 ʻAukake 1873 — The Scare of Leprosy [ARTICLE]

The Scare of Leprosy

l las done iis no doubt a good deal of. honn, The segregation of our !epers, \ve believe to be ueeee■>:'ary, but sueli a wofk niigbt have been carvied out far more quietly apd just ae efficieDtly as it aas been done. Don't lay ail fche blame on news-| papers, and say they stnred it up, They are not 10 be blaniedj if they gave no more than promi-! nent, or noticeable fact*. However we elo not \vaut to discuss any blame in this sad busincss as >ve believe that the authoritxes tvied to do what! was for the besfc in this matter; butwewanted! iO say a word about the unneeessary scure that • )opi:oBy hasgivcn īw t»in our forcign community | md abroad. Tlu difeeasc 'has becn in tho islands, f ■ -. ■ - ".i j fay forty ycars 6r longer ; and lioin first to last, j perhaps fifteen huhdred natrres have been attaeked i Hy it; yet only four, perhaps flve wli.Ue nfcn (and 1 tiofc one w*hite woman) have heeome mfeetcd in; ill this time ; and yet the whole fbreign eommu- ! nity have been iningling in years past \v!th all ihese patients We liavc known lepcrs to he^ employed about the houses of loreigners fbr a' !ong time, we have shaken hands with dlseased | people verj often ; we have passed and jostled' the. !epers For jears aml years in our streets ; and yet j we have felt that there wae no more dangcr of, becoming lepers ouivc!vcs , nor waa there in fhet,j ilian there would be to get our hnek erooked hy j puMiolv with a lot of !mmpbaeks. ' But this dtsease, a eombination of svphilie apd - elephantiaeis $ or w!nitever it may he, is no dou!>t to eome extent ebntāgious; but evidet!t!y only in ' oase of most !ntimatē assoeiation, and wlien In a° • i predisposiog of d.i«ea*e We d"> nut belicTC ifc is.as contageous as md certain!y nofc m mueh so a? the niuinpe, as said onee' A healUu wife or_husband may ae^uwe 1 tubevwlar eon« n ♦ m hv eonttant aiw!ation

with und oursing of a disoascd eompnion. V>nt • this leprosj is' not 80 surely eontagiou* ; ai«d it Ie! the idlcst fear imaginable tliat there is anj! bj living in the countrj. 01; in of bemg ili the neiglTßorhood person of lupex There is nofc the hundredth part of the| dangei, that is to be appreheiuled in Amei ioa or' Euiope, or other 'parts of the woi'kl. froin the poeeihle eontaet \vit!j a ease of eoneumpliou, f measlcs, mumps, aiii.l ot!icr inin«>r disea>es un-! knowh to iif withtnt speaking of eholera, «nall-! pox and scaxlatma. ! The bvphilitie condition of some of .our people no doubt affords an opportnnitj for -the ; innoeulation of this disease we eall leprosy. All ! diseased virus is some sort of. infusorial life\ ■ •Now thf infusoria of eholera . small-pox, searla- ; measU)s, sjphilis. and other uiBca?cs readilji fiiīd a lodgment, and grow, even in a healthj' bcdv—but we have no evidenee that this leprous' virus will effect a lodgment by merelj eoming in | contaet with a healthy subjeet. īt seems to' require sorue previous diecased c< >ndition in order 1 to effect a graft, or to take hokl and grow. We' would sit and eat witli a leper. We have done' so, and would do so again ; and we saj, that a 11! feār of danger from any puhlie centact with*aleper, prōeeeds from a most unreasonable seare, ■