The Spread of Leprosy. 85 



good service, and are still capable of doing good, if only 

 a different policy would be adopted. That known as 

 the General Leper Asylum is practically isolated and 

 within easy reach of supervision, a most necessary desi- 

 deratum. The difficulty hitherto has been with the female 

 lepers. They are most unmanageable ; and their Asylum 

 is most unsuitable in every way, and should not be so 

 near the male Asylum as it is at present. It was this 

 difficulty about the sexes that led to the riots at the 

 Asylum some years ago. 



One of the islands in the Demerara or Essequebo 

 rivers, has been suggested as the future site to which 

 all the lepers should be removed ; and the sugges- 

 tion deserves consideration. Our duty will not, 

 however, have Been done by merely sending them out 

 of sight, that they might be, as doubtless they would be, 

 out of mind. They must be placed within easy reach 

 of proper Governmental supervision ; and it will not be 

 easy to get a medical man and officers willing to isolate 

 themselves far away among such cases. A great many 

 difficulties stand in the way, and a good case will have to be 

 made out, and good plans submitted, before the Home Go- 

 vernment will permit anv change. Something will soon 

 have to be done at the female Asylums, as the buildings 

 there — intended to be temporary — are falling to pieces. 



The West Indies will never stamp out leprosy 

 unless they all combine seriously together, and form the 

 large leper community, each place contributing its 

 proper share of the cost. By these means, and by insisting 

 on stricTt isolation, there is every human probability that 

 the disease of leprosy may yet be entirely eradicated, as 

 was done in England during the Middle Ages. 



