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TlMEHRl. 



scope, a bacteriologist and histologist. The profession has 

 not yet been placed in possession of any of the scientific 

 work of the present Superintendent ; but he has been 

 too short a time in office. He may be assured of as 

 hearty a reception of his work as that accorded to his 

 colleague of the Trinidad Asylum. 



The Asylums at Mahaica are at present very well con- 

 dueled. The place is clean and comfortable, and the 

 inmates receive every care and attention, and are well 

 fed and clothed ; but when we read in the report for last 

 year that as many as 67 — a larger number than in any 

 previous year — absconded and returned to dwell among 

 the sound inhabitants, we may well pause and enquire 

 whether the colony is receiving full value for the large 

 sums of money annually spent on these Asylums. If 

 such care is taken of them and they receive every 

 comfort, is it too much to ask in return that they should 

 surrender their liberty and submit voluntarily to strict 

 segregation, the only arrangement at all likely to stamp 

 out the disease? For years the writer has been urging 

 on the Government the necessity for strict isolation, if 

 they wish to profit by the experience of Honolulu ; but 

 notwithstanding, matters are in the same position to-day 

 as they were ten years ago. Nothing has been attempted, 

 nothing done ; and colonists continue to live on in a 

 fool's paradise, apparently unconscious of the dangers by 

 which they are surrounded. Many years ago, in one of 

 my official reports, I suggested that all the West India 

 Islands should combine and form one leper community 

 on one of the Islands of the Carribean Sea; but nothing 

 came of the suggestion. 



The present Asylums here have undoubtedly done 



