LEPROSY IN THE ISLANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9403, 9 January 1894, Page 6

LEPROSY IN THE ISLANDS.

Mb. Moss British Resident at (ha Cook Islands/ being in Auckland on a visit, a reporter from the Herald, interviewed him respecting the existence bflleproey'iQ the Islands, a subject) which has excited much interest and been frequently dealt with by correspondents in our columns. The reporter found Mr. Moss at his old residence in Parnell, and was readily given all the information in that gentleman's possession. "We hear, Mr. Moss," said our representative, " that this ' dread disease of leprosy is spreading in the Island, Mid that it has also appeared in the Cook group." ' "It _ia known to exist in Penrhyn and Manahiki, but there is," replied Mr. Moss, "no established , case in the Cook Islands. The subject has given me much concern, as the Cook Islands are in regular communication both with Penrhyn and Manahiki, and proper precautions, with a Maori population, are very difficult,' if not impossible. We have no doctors, but Dr. Andrews, surgeon of H.M.s. Ringdove, has been kind enough, at my request, to make an official report on the health of Rarotonga, the chief ins!and of the Cook group. He met one possible case, but was not prepared to state that it is absolutely leprosy. > Afterwards the Ringdove called at Penrhyn and Manahiki, which are some 500 to 600 miles from the Cook Islands. Several undoubted cases were there met with. At Penrhyn, lepers and their families are seat to a small adjacent islet, which, which, however, is said to be frequently visited by the friends and relations of the lepers. I have sent Dr. Andrews' report to His Excellency the Governor, and with it a number of illustrative photographs of lepers taken by Dr. Andrews in various islands. This report will probably be published as a whole, and it would not be right to publish particular parts in the meantime." "Thenthere isaquarantine at Penrhyn?" " Very inefficient. It could not be otherwise with natives as administrators ; but it has been a great relief to me to get the exhaustive report of the Indian Leprosy Commission of 1890-91, which I sent for to India. Here it is:"

[Mr. Moss handed to our reporter a volume of 450 pages with numerous maps and detailed statistics. The report well deserved to be called exhaustive^] " You will observe that the Commissioners are very positive in stating their unanimous belief that leprosy ' is not diffused by hereditary transmission,' —that the extent to which it can bo propagated by contagion is ' exceedingly small,' that it is ' indirectly influenced by insanitary surroundings,' which, 'by causing a predisposition, increase the susceptibility of' the individual to the disease,' and that 'leprosy is nob directly originated by the use of any particular article of food nor by any climatic or telluric conditions.'" " What conclusions do you draw from this

" Personally I do not feel competent to form an opinion on the snbjecb, and willingly accept those of the Commission. Three of the Commissioners were appointed in England by the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Surgeons, and the Executive Committee of the National Leprosy Fund raised under the auspices of the Prince of Wales. To them were added two Indian military surgeons of high standing appointed by the Indian Government. The Commissioners are unanimous against compulsory isolation. They recommend voluntary separation of lepers by forming them with their families into self-supporting agricultural colonies, giving them a large amount of freedom, ana prohibiting them only from telling articles of food and drink, or from exercising certain callings such as those of barbers and others. Vagrant and indigent lepers living in the villages and scattered about the country in India are described as ' probably sources of little or no danger.' Finally, the Commissioners say that they would 'in no case suggest an Imperial Act especially directed against lepers, as such, for these are far less dangerous to the community than insane or syphilitic people.'" " Are not these conclusions contrary to what have lone: been the expressed opinions of medical authorities ?" . ,

" They are certainly contrary to the ideas I had myself acquired from reading such authorities. But the high qualifications of the Commissioners, the wide field covered by their investigations during nearly eight months of continuous work, and the thorough nature of thab investigation, make their report unanswerable to anyone less well informed than themselves." •

" You said that to yourself personally this report was a great relief. May I ask why r • A V-j w "Id the first place I am Very keenly alive to the difficulty— might say the practical impossibility —of taking effective quarantine precautions among a careless Maori people entrusted with the administration of their own taws. The cost of employing European officials precludes their employment, and an inefficient quarantine is itself a-danger by, creating a false "sense of security. It) is consolatory also, in the interests of humanity, to hear that the cruel policy of segregation in not a necessity. Then again the Commissioners point to ' improved sanitation and good dietetic conditions,' as the only hope for a diminution of the disease. This means that the true public danger lies in the spread of poverty with its insanitary surroundings, want of proper sustenance and loss of vigour and vitality. In this light leprosy is only the effect of a preventible cause. To war with the effect and neglect to attack the causa is an old and fatal blunder which the report of the Commissioners in calculated to save us from repeating in this case. You will observe that tho copy which I have is only just published in Calcutta. Very likely other copies are in Auckland, but, if not, 1 shall be pleased to place this at the disposal of any who are interested in the question."