ON LEPROSY IN THE NORTH OF EUROPE AND ITS 

 CONTAGIOUS CHARACTER. 



By JOSEPH LAUTERER, M.D. 



[ReaiJ biffore the Ruyol Sorie.tij of Queemlnntl, Hth October, 1892. j 



Before I left my old home for Australia I made an extensiye 

 European tour, partly for the furtherance of my studies and 

 partly for amusement. In Norway I fixed my attention especially 

 on Leprosy, which is by no means of rare occurrence in the 

 north-west of the Scandinavian peninsula. 



Although the disease is genuine leprosy — the bacillus of 

 leprosy itself having been discovered in Scandinavia by Dr. 

 Hansen soon after I had left the place — it is always called by 

 the name of " Spetalska" or " Speoealskhef all over Norway,. 

 Sweden, and Finland. 



In my time, now some years ago, this disease was not 

 considered to be at all contagious, and patients suffering from 

 it were treated in the same room with skin disease and of 

 syphilitic complaints of every description. There were aboat 

 twenty sufferers in the Christiania University Hospital, and I 

 met with about ten more in a private hospital in Drammen — 

 a town some miles further to the north. Scarcely any of them 

 were lying in bed ; on the contrary they were moving about 

 freely over the whole hospital among the other patients, and 

 the nurses and doctors handled them without fear. Dr. Soren- 

 sen, who acted as my usher and teacher, had all the patients 

 undressed in the course of some days, always passing his hand 

 all over the diseased skin (and I followed his example) for the 

 purpose of noting the roughness of the scaly surface and the 

 small nodules under it, arranged like beads on a string, follow- 

 ing the threads of the lymphatic vessels. Dr. Sorensen assured 

 me that the bedclothes and linen of the lepers were washed in 



