234 THE RISE AND FALL OF DISEASE 



relationslii]). l^ut tlic great lesson wliich leprosy 

 teaches us is the magnificent results Avhich sanitation 

 and the skilled care of the sick can bring about. 

 The leper no longer roams about or is allowed to 

 rot in some disused hut little better than a dog- 

 kennel. He is taken and cared for in beautifully 

 kept hospitals and lazarettos, where he is well fed 

 and his existence made tolerable ; and those of 

 us who have seen him in these institutions will, I 

 am sure, agree that a great debt of gratitude is due 

 to those devoted nurses and to the sisterhoods who 

 devote their lives to his care : they are helping in 

 an unmistakable way to make the world healthier, 

 and it is one of the great reasons why this terrible 

 disease is becoming less. 



While leprosy is diminishing, an allied disease, often 

 called the white man's plague, appears to be spreading 

 in the tropical world. The cause is probably not very 

 far to seek. We know that the wild animals are not 

 prone to this disease, but the domestic animals are. 

 Similarly, we have reason to believe that the wild man 

 is less prone than the civilised man to contract the 

 disease. AVhen, however, with the extension of com- 

 merce, the native races begin to copy more and more 

 our w^ays of living, they render themselves equally 

 liable to our diseases. AVe have already pointed out 

 how the domestic animals share with us diseases in 

 common. The native, instead of living as of old in his 

 freer and less crowded state, comes into the larger 

 villages and towns to seek w^ork ; overcrowding in con- 

 sequence results, too many live huddled together in one 



