AMONG THE LEPERS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 212, 1 June 1908, Page 8

AMONG THE LEPERS.

LESSON OF 19 YEARS.' ''A HIGHLY COMMUNICABLE DISEASE." - Mr.'William Powell, superintendent of the Leper Homo at Bapatla,, in Southern India, was interviewed the other day in Sydney. Ho is- a member of the South Indian Baptist Missionary Society, and has been connected with the-Leper Homo for 19 years. It is in the. interests of the leper work that he has come to Australia. , The homo contains 116 inmates, all native, from a child six months old to an old man of 70, in all stages of tho disease. All castes and creeds are admitted, and they are treated, for most' part—sinco nearly all are very poor—free'df charge. In tho first-stages of the diseaso the. lepers are able to do a little gardening .or agricultural work, raising vegetables; grain', and fruit for their own consumption, but since they are not allowed to work among the healthy, even in fields or .forests, | this is the only manner in which they can contribute to' the cost of their support. The Government of Madras lias given the Society .25 acres of land, the services of a native doctor, and annual grants of medicines. .A? a result bis 19 yoars' experience, it is Mr. Powells opinion that leprosy is highly contagious and infectious. Numbers' 1 of people have told him that they'contracted the disease from eating food prepared or clothes'-worn by lepers, or ftorn-touching them, or even from-inhaling their breath. There is now in tho home a family of five—a mother, two .sons, and two daughters, all lepers, and the father died of leprosy. As many as ( eleven in one family have been known. ■ Unfortunately, driven- from their homes, they, wander about' the country spreading 'the disease.' Mr. Powell hopes' however, that before long the Government may be able to segregate them all. ' v The object of Mr. Powell's visit is to collect.money for the establishment of a home for untainted children of lepers, who may thus be rescued from tho disease. He has now 33 applications on behalf of such children, five' from one family. It is also honed to build a meeting place for those lepers who are Christians. - There is already a Sunday school and Christian Endeavour. Society and a small_ day school of 22 leper children in connection with -tho homo. *