NIGHTMARE VOYAGE

Evening Star, Issue 21991, 29 March 1935, Page 8

NIGHTMARE VOYAGE

LEPER MADMAN AT LARGE DOCTOR’S COURAGE AVERTS TRAGEDY fPer United Prbsb Association.] AUCKLAND, March 29. A • tragic combination of insanity and leprosy in two of the thirty-five persons taken from the various islands of the Cook Group and Samoa to the Makogai Leper Station, Fiji, by the Matai, which arrived at Auckland yesterday, gave almost a nightmare aspect to parts of the voyage. One madman attacked three of the other lepers with a large file, injuring two of them severely and one slightly. Had it not been for the courage and knowledge of the Natives of Dr E. P. Ellison, chief medical officer in the Cook Islands, someone would probably have been killed. Neither of the men was known to be mad when taken on the Matai, one at Aitutaki and one at Rakahanga. The Aitutaki man, one of the first three on board, spent the first night singing loudly, ami refused; to stop, and Dr Ellison had later to give him an injection to stop him from injuring others when he began to bo violent. For two days after that he was much quieter, and appeared to be returning to a normal state of mind. As a precaution he was kept lightly tied up for a day or two, but he soon seemed so well that this was thought unnecessary. In the early morning of the fifth day on the ship, however, the chief officer on watch heard the leper yelling, aud saw him dancing on top of a temporary building on the well-deck where the lepers were housed. Mr S. J. Smith, secretary of the Cook Islands Department, also heard the shouting, and ran to the bridge to see what was the matter. The madman, stark naked, seemed likely to fall into the sea, and Smith and the officer were greatly relieved when he scrambled across to the top of the main leper house amidships. He put an arm through the ventilator on the roof and called to the other lepers inside. Thou he jumped to the back of the house and tried to scramble on the bridge. The hose was run out, and when played on the madman quietened him down.

Dr Ellison had been called, and superintended the other lepers, who tied the Aitutaki man, who recovered and gave no more trouble, behaving quite rationally toward the end.

But his place as a source of anxiety to the doctor, Captain Burgess, and the officers was taken by the Rakah'hnga man. He appeared to be sane, although a very advanced case. Dr Ellison rushed to the cabin for his gown and rubber gloves, and then went forward to the house. The doorway was small, and there was little room inside, and he was faced by a madman who was waving a blood-covered file with which he had attacked three others.

“Put down that iron,” he told the leper. The madman wavered, the doctor repeated the command, and this time the file was dropped. Two other men who were trying to hold the madman back with brooms, jumped in and tied him up. The doctor, in a gale, attended the injured'lepers. One had a deep scalp wound, another facial injuries, while a third had a badly gashed log. While Mr Smith held a torch, the doctor dressed the wounds, and saw that all the men were comfortable for the night.