DISEASES. 139 



with other lepers as a cause/'' The reporters remark on this 

 subject : " The disease arises in a clean nation, is unnoticed at 

 first, and spreads slowly. . . It so happens that the hygienic 

 state of the natives and the colony has improved, and not dete- 

 riorated. Animal food is within the reach of all ; labour is in 

 great demand and well paid for. The natives are clad now like 

 Europeans ; formerly scantily, if at all. The climate is, perhaps, 

 the finest in the world ; taxation is light. Yet, notwithstanding, 

 leprosy spreads, and has spread, from and around known 

 lepers as from centres of contagion." They wind up with the 

 following remark : " It appears, then, that in searching for the 

 cause of leprosy, we must make allowance for a large amount of 

 propagated disease through intermarriage, hereditary transmis- 

 sion, and contact with the affected — for, in fact, disease propa- 

 gated from individual to indiviual." Nothing, as it appears, 

 has been attempted to check the spreading of the disease, and it 

 has spread fearfully. 



Let us |now turn to some other places where measures more 

 or less stringent have been enforced, and let us compare the 

 result. In New Brunswick the disease made its first appearance 

 about the year 1815 ; in 1844 twenty- two persons afflicted with 

 leprosy were found out, and most stringent measures immediately 

 adopted. "Within the last ten or twelve years/ - ' says Dr. 

 Gordon, "the disease has decreased, owing to the greater care 

 and attention taken in separating the lepers. In 1863 the total 

 number was twenty-two, and now cannot be more than forty." 



In Curacao most stringent measures have been enforced for 

 the last forty years, and the number of lepers in that island has 

 for the last twenty years varied between ten and thirteen. 



In another Dutch colony, Surinam, the adoption of similar 

 measures had the same beneficial results, and the number of 

 lepers is smaller there than it is in French or British Guiana. 



Lepers, from the very nature of their malady, are shunned 

 by those amongst whom they live, and cannot find employment ; 

 except such as have personal resources, they must become men- 

 dicants. There is no doubt that a country where leprosy 

 prevails to any extent is more or less dreaded as a resorting place. 

 I have, therefore, come to the conclusion that lepers should be 

 sequestered and admitted into proper asylums, where they would 

 be well housed, properly fed, and kindly nursed. 



