A LIVING DEATH. 



345 



malady is literally a living deatk I found it 

 so sickening, even to look at theni^ that I was 

 glad when I came to the last house. Here I was 

 shown a young child, a few weeks old. Ko mai'ka 

 of the disease could be detected, unless it might be 

 that it was very much lighter colored than either of 

 its parents. The lather was one of the worst cases I 

 saw, but the disease had not appeared in the mother, 

 except as a great swelling in the ankles. This child 

 must certauily die a leper, and probably will never 

 leave the vOlage where it was born. For this reason, 

 if for no other, the goveinment certainly acts wisely 

 in compelling all who have this disease to come and 

 live here together, where, at all events, it cannot be 

 widely spread. When it does not appear in a very 

 malignant tbrm in the parents, it has been known 

 to fail to appear in the children, but to appear 

 again in the grandchildi'en. Governor Aniens told 

 me of such a case in Java, It was evident that the 

 man was a leper, though only a considerable swell- 

 ing could be detected on one ear, yet he %va3 able to 

 prove that neither of his parents was a leper, but, on 

 further inquiry, the governor found that the man^s 

 grandfather was a leper. This disease is regarded'here 

 as an endemic, that is, chiefly confined to the Mina- 

 hassa and the Molncca,^^, Much discussion has arisen 

 whether leprosy is contagious. The doctor with 

 whom I resided while at Burn had been previously 

 stationed at Amboinaj and -while there a soldier who 

 was bom in Holland was taken, and died with this 

 disease. In that case it was evident that the disease 

 was not hereditaiy, and, after the most cai'eful in- 



