LEPROSY.

Press, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4514, 19 January 1880, Page 3

LEPROSY.

The " Sydney Evening News" of a recent date has the following article in relation to the discovery of two Chinese lepers in the district :—

The discovery made during the past wee that two Chinese lepers were living in a hous at Waterloo has naturally caused some alarr in that neighbourhood. One of the unhapp; wretches, in the last stage of the hideou malady, had, it appears, poisoned himself The survivor has been very properly removal by the police and taken to La Perouse, when he will be kept striotly isolated. Notwith standing the large number of Chinese in thi city, leprosy has not hitherto made its ap pearance among them ; or else it has been ii some mild form whioh has escaped genera notice. In this respect we have been mor fortunate than our southern neighbour! How to deal with leprosy is not the least o the social problems which have exercisei the Victorians. Leper camps have existe< for many years at Ballarat, Castlemaine and other large centres of mining population When the attention of the Victorian Govern ment was first directed to the subjeot, the; addressed themselves to the then Secretar for the Colonies, the Duke of Newcastle, re questing him to obtain from the best medics authorities in the mother country informstioi as the alleged contagious nature of leprosy The Duke of Newcastle accordingly placet himself in communication with the College o Physicians. At a very early period of th inquiry carried out by that body, the replie received enabled the College to assure th Secretary of State for the Colonies tha "there was no evidence which, in thei opinion, justified any course for the com pulsory segregation of lepers. There appear no more need (or just the same) for restriotinj the liberty Of lepers than for restricting th liberty of those afflicted with gout." Men recently an eminent professional writer define: leprosy as "a constitutional, non-contagioui hereditary affection." These assurances should be sufficient b dispel the apprehensions of nervous person who share the popular belief that nobody oai approach a leper with running the risk o being contaminated. The opinions expressed by English physioians have been oonfirmei by the experience of medical men in Aus tralia. Hundreds of degraded Europe* outcasts, whose physical condition render them peculiarly liable to catch infection diseases, are known to frequent these Chines camps. No case has, however, been reoordet of a European, or a person of Europea* descent, having been treated for leprosy a any of the public institutions in Viotoria. Leprosy, like many of the frightful scourge which have afflicted the human race, has it home in "the mysterious East.'* Durin the middle ages it was well known in Europe It lingered in England down to the olose o the eighteenth century. In a portion o Norway it is still as rife as ever, and it ha not yet been banished from the norther shores of the Mediterranean.

Neglect of sanitary laws, unwholesome food, exposure to extreme heat and cold, are mentioned among the supposed causes of this somewhat obscure disease. We have abundant evidence that our ancestors did not regard personal cleanliness as one of the essential virtues. Nature exacted the inevitable penalty. Horrible epidemics, happily known to us only by name—the Black death, the sweati g sickness—periodically raged, and carried off thousands of victims in the British Islands. The leprosy followed in their train, and became acclimatised in the wretohed hovels of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin. Headers of our old dramatists will remember how familiarly they allude to the "Lazar House." Gradually, as thehumbler classes improved their way of living, and were enabled to procure better food, better clothing, and better lodgings, than their forefathers, the leprosy died out in Great Britain. The last cases of it occurred in 1798, when patients suffering from undoubted leprosy were brought from the Shetland Islands for treatment in the Hospital of Edinburgh. It finally disappeared like many other relics of " the good old timeß," before the light of the nineteenth century. Though, as we have shown, the most enlightened scientific theories ridicule the idea of the leprosy being communicable by contact with diseased persons; yet, as the fact has not absolutely been proved beyond all doubt, it would be well for the police to take every reasonable precaution for the protection of the publio.

The Fiench "Official Journal" slates that the yield of com for 1879 was 234,168,820 bushels.

AWychitella correspondent of the "East Charlton Tribune" gives the following average of the harvest in that district: — Barley, English, to forty bushels to the acre; Cape, nearly the same; oats not threshed yet; wheat, seventeen to thirty bushels, but most about twenty bushels.

The " Bappel" states that M. de F—rycinet proposes to expend 35,000,000!. next year on port improvements, of which sum Boulogne wfll have 2 550,000f.; Calais, 90,000f. ; Dunkirk, 2,000,000f. j Dieppe, l.SOO.OOOf.; Havre, 2,400,000f. ; Cherbourg, 1,000,0001. ; and 8. Malo, 2,550,0001. Of these works all but that at Dunkirk are already in progress. Mr Peter Campbell, the Australian bush and goldfields missionary, has returned to Melbourne after a prolonged absence. During the last twelve months he has travelled on horseback some 2500 miles and about 350 miles per coach and train. He has travelled over large tracts of the up-country districts of Victoria, Ac., preaching and lecturing to all classes. He was very kindly and hospitably received and attentively listened to wherever he went. The 27th nit. was the ninth annirenary of the institution of this mission, the operations of which hare been carried on in fire of the colonies.

|> "A STITCH -■■•Ot TIMS SAVBS xtb*"jis a common proverb, with an equally common apphoability to every phase and droamstance and transaction of human life. An initiatory step or action often saves much subsequent trouble and inconvenience. If those who are threatened with gout, gravel, dyspepsia, indigestion, nervous debility, flatulence, nausea, or kidney complaints, would only use Udolpho Wo-Pk'b Bchikda_ Abokatio Schnapps, they would, if not suppretsing any decided development, at least prevent any aggravation of their disorders.—fAnvT )