| Show LEPROSY IN AMERICA mrs harding davis writes in the new york independent under the heading the plague spat of america or the existence of leprosy in america As early as 1718 1748 17 18 the negroes imported into louisiana from guinea brought with them three kindred di diseases teases the african yaw the elephantiasis aud and the genuine le leprosy rosy of the bible so rapid was le the spread of the last disease and so great the terror which it inspired that ulloa made an ineffectual effort to herd the victims together in 1785 governor miro founded a hospital for them neat near the bayou st john they were confined to a ridge of land surrounding it called la terra des lepreux in consequence of this isolation according to gayarre leprosy almost died out in louisiana the hospital was deserted and the band land is now a densely populated quarter of the I 1 elty ity in 1870 the leprosy appear appen ret again in vermillion parish A woman named Our blanc fro aror the south of france in whose family it had been hereditary sud denly developed in her old age the terrible u mistakable mista keble symptoms her husband and seven dh children ildren atta all fled and left her to the care or of a young girl of the neighborhood who took pity on her extremity and tenderly nursed her to the end after her death the disease appeared in this heroic girl and in six of ibe abe old comans womans childred they all died other cases in which the con coa dagion was clearly traced to the our blanc family ap lepers now became frequent patients in th abe charity hospital in new orleans the most pathetic case among them was that of father boglioli a catholic priest a powerful muscular man of noble presence from the apennine mountains who for four teen years had ministered to the patients in this hospital he was called upon to administer the last rites of his church to of the dy ing lepers but was warned of the dan ger of contact he quietly proceeded with his duty nursing the lepers giving them extreme U unction and laying them in the grave he was 1 at once infected with the disease and diet died about two years ago the chief seat of leprosy in louisiana however has always been on the bayou lafourche below Hda Harangue 1 canal in 1880 the legislature was roused to action on this subject and dr joseph jones of the board of health with his son volunteered to examine into the condition of the infected district he found tho the cabins of the inhabitants standing in low marshes usually rich fields irrigate i up to the very doors door their diet consisted largely of fish fiell and rice they were constantly subject to low malarial atmosphere the leprosy inherited in some come of these families from distant ancestors in africa or southern europe was spread by contagion and nursed b by we the low poverty stricken nial arlous conditions of their life the lepers fled fied on his arrival or were hidden by theli their friends as it was feared were to be carried off to some isolated island in the sea like that thai of molokai dr jones however discovered whole families in which asiatic leprosy had ex isted for generations some of the victims with their leonine faces and hands turned to stone were living alone in huts thatched with pal mattos among the swamps feeding themselves on such rice and roots ds as they could find abandoned by man and it must have seemed to them by god himself dr jones oi oa 1 his return vehemently urged the legislature of louisiana todo to do some thing for the relief of this most wretched community bothi nothing was done then thein and nothing has since been done it is rumored that leprosy is still on the increase in thise this region As far as I 1 know not even the devoted roman priest has pene grated into its shades of death wh h should not we too do something I 1 in memory of father ather F damien what wha shall we do for these our own 1 lepers |
