New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal (Volume 22)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895. Excerpt: ... has a great many islands in pleasant climates situated so me distance from the mainland, where the lepers could be confined without fear of escape, and where they could enjoy what pleasure life still holds for them. Members of the Marine Hospital Service, being under a discipline almost military, could be detailed from time to time to care for the unfortunates. The lepers from all parts of the country could there be gathered together, and in the course of a generation indigenous leprosy in the United States would be a thing of the past. In the early part of this century we had a leper hospital in this city. When the disease died out (or was supposed to have died out), the hospital crumbled to pieces and leprosy was no longer a live issue. When, owing to years of indifference, the disease took a fresh start and gained a firm foothold in the State, half-way measures were adopted, but the only efforts at control were confined to the city. Now, the people of the whole State see that the question is more than a municipal affair, and the State government has taken a hand in the affair. In this we can easily see the result of educating the people up to the point of doing a plain duty. The educating process should, in our opinion, be carried a little further. Among us, leprosy was first placed under municipal control; now it is in the hands of the State government, and we hope the time is not far off when the plan of national control outlined above will be adopted as the most thorough and satisfactory way of dealing with an unpleasant but irrepressible question. biographical Sketches. THOMAS HUNT, M. D. (See Frontispiece.) No medical history of Louisiana has yet been written. The vast mass of valuable material in which this State abounds remains in its orignal c...