New-York tribune. [volume], March 03, 1907, Page 2, Image 18

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tup: \atio\ s u:i'i:h's.
Effort to Establish a Home for Them
Down South.
Now Orleans. March 2— lf the plans of Dr. Isa
ctore Dyer and other physicians of Louisiana are
cmrrleJ out, the despairing cry of the leper. "Un
clean! Unclean!" may gradually become a thing
of the past, and the world may find that leprosy
Is a curable instead of an incurable disease.
If energy and constant effort meet with suc
cess, the United States within a few years will
see established in Louisiana a national home for
lepers, where these unfortunate persons fron
all ever the country will be brought for treat
ment and. in many cases, ultimate recovery.
There is now only one place en this continent
Where the leper may find a refuge and a home
that will afford him all the necessary comforts
of life. This home is situated in the State of
Louisiana. In Iberviue Parish, on
sf lanJ bordi ring the Mississippi River, and in
ante-bellum days was called Indian Camp plan
tation. The same name still eUngS to the es
tate, but instead <f an old fashioned plantation
house, with its barns ami Stabli
quart' rs and its fields green with cane or white
With cotton, there is the attractive administra
tion building remodelled from the ancient plan
tation "Pig house." and clustered about a num-
V?r of low. roomy modem brick structures
which serve as sleeping quarters and treatment
■eonis for the patients.
This Is the Leper Home of the State of Louisi
ana, .li.-eetly under state oversight and gov
•rni <i 1 y a board of control. Here for the last
few y«-ara Dr. Isadore Dyer, consulting leprol
»gist and Or. Ralph HopUin*. visitinß physician,
have Firug^led to cure the disease, and slowly
but siir. !> they have demonstrated, they dr»clare,
that if it be taken in hand before the last stages
have b. ea reached leprosy, by means of a cer
tain course of treatment, may be eradicated from
the body.
Fln< c 1K94 there have been admitted to the
Home 101 patients. Of this number three have
been discharged as cured, forty have died, four
teen have absconded th»t is. run away frcm
the home— and forty-four remain at Indian
Camp.
Of the three eases discharged the first was
that ef a boy admitted In October. 11**-. at the
age of thirteen. He was discharged December 7.
1904. as cured, and has been kept under observa
fon ever since. Reports show that there has
«een no return of any evidence of the disease.
The second ease was that or a woman ad
*itte<; August I<>. 1!**». at the a^e of fifty.
and discharged cured December 1.. 1905. Then
has been r:o evMence of a recurrence of the
eiseas- m her ease. This patient was kept eigh
teen months under observation aft< r lesions
disappeared before she *as discharged
from the H"r:.<-.
The third case was that of a woman admit
ted Jane 2. 1904. at the as« of thirty years,
and discharged April 2f>. 1000. cured. She was
kept at the Home more than a year under ob
servation after the lesions had disappeared.
Eight of the patients now at the Home show
a type of arrested disease, with no active le
sions and no evidence of the disease except
pigmentation. Of this number at least six are
now under observation, with a vi \v to their
e'lsrharge after a reasonable period of freedom
from the disease.
This is the triumph of medical science at the
Louisiana State Leper Hume, but it is only
the beginning. It represents many years of
toil and s itf-denial on the part of public spir
ited citisens, attending physicians, and last, but
probably greatest of all. the Bisters of Charity
who have devoted their lives in ministering to
the l< in rs.
"Not many people scorn to realize it. but lep
rosy is on the increase in the State of Louisiana,
and. for that matter, throughout the entire
country." sail Dr. Dyer in a recent interview.
•The cause of this increase may be laid to the
fact that, with the exception of Louisiana, there
are do organized homes in the United States
for the care and treatment of persons afflicted
with the disease. For many years I have rec
ognized the need of a national Institution for
the treatment of lepers. Many others have
agreed with me, but so far no concerted ac
tion lias been taken looking to the attainment
ef this end.
"From now on we shall endeavor to bring
NEW-YORK DAILY TUIBUNE. SUNDAY, MA UGH 3, 1907.
MODERN LIVING QUARTERS FOR LEPERS AT THE LAZARETTO IN IEERVILLE PARISH, LOUISIANA.
the matter squarely before the people, in the
hope that they may take it up with Congress.
Louisiana now possesses a home of this char
actei which could be made the nucleus of a
national institution. This would enable the
country to centralize its leper population, and
thus to a large extent prevent further spread
of the disease."
The treatment which has accomplished such
wonderful results consists, it is said, in admin
istering ichtliyol. chlorate of potash, strych
nine, saiicylate of soda, chaulmugra oil and
arsenic. The best results seem to follow the
treatment with chaulmugra oil and strychnine,
the three patients discharged as cured having
had this course
The method of treatment is largely one of
nutrition, it being known that if a resistance
can be established in the individual patient
the fli«">a«M» will disappear. All patients, there-
HOUSE CONTAINING THE SNOW TELESCOPE.
This instrument, for studying the sun rather than tho stare* is already on Meant Wilson.
It was originally presented by Miss He. en Snow, off Chicago, to tho Ycrkes Observatory.
fore, are required to take daily hot baths, eat
plenty of wholesome food, without respect to
its being fish, flesh, fowl or vegetable, and to
spend as much time as possible In the open a!r
and sunshine.
Among other Improvements planned for the
near future are a chapel, a refrigerating plant,
another twelve room cottage for female patients.
a steam laundry, lighting plant, nre department
ami drainage. Screening of ail the houses will
follow as soon as sufficient funds are in hand.
Kv»i> effort of the board of control is being di
rected toward making the Home a home indeed
for the afflicted lepers.
77 1.1.V Ul M.IIIF.n
"We want a man for our Information bureau."
said the manager, "but he must be one who can
answer all sorts of questions and not lose his
head."
"That's me." replied the applicant. *"I*m tho
father of eight children."— Tit -Bits.
A HUGE TELESIOVE.
Of the Reflecting Type, with a Glass
100 Inches in Diameter.
fropyrteht. 1907. fey Job* Elfreth Watk!n*>
What will be by far the most powerful tele
scope ever employed to glean from the night the
secrets of the heavens is to be built for the Car
negie Institution's new solar observatory upon
Mount Wilson. Southern California, where the
atmosphere is said to be more transparent and
serene than at any other observatory on earth.
In this great instrument a magnifying re
flector one hundred inches (8 1-3 feet) in diam
eter will be used in lieu of the glass lens of the
ordinary telescope This concave disk will be so
large that, if placed upon edge, a half-grown
boy standing upon the shoulders of a tan man
will about be able to touch the topmost part of
the rim. The Immense block of glass from
which it Is to be ground will weigh four and a
half tons and measure thirteen inches in thick
ness. Four years will be required for moulding,
grinding and polishing it in a special optical
shop to be built for the purpose.
The double windows of this laboratory win be
scaled against the possible admission of dust,
and the air to be breathed by the opticians will
be filtered before being admitted to the Interior.
This Riant reflector will be silvered upon the
outside of the glass, ami to prevent any expan
sion of the latter during the process an auto
matic heater will maintain the atmosphere of
the shop at a constant temperature, night and
day. summer and winter. To further reduce the
danger of possible scratches from dust the floor
AEOVE THE CLOUDS.
A view from Mount Wilson Observatory.
win be kept wet throughout the entire process
of polishing.
The great mirror, together with Its several
auxiliary reflectors, will east 945.001). and v 1
be the gift of John D. Hooter, a philanthropist
of Lob Angelea. The construction of the mount
ings of these mirrors will require a year, and a
special electric motor truck has been devised to
carry them to the summit of Mount Wilson.
which rises to an altitude of more than a mile
above the nearby surface of the Pacific
The completed telescepe will have the power
to bring the moan's image within fifty miles of
the earth, theoretically. An object on the moon
less than half as long as the Capitol at Wash
ington and less than a third as high as the
Washington Monument should thus be discern*
ible under the mest favorable atmospheric c n
ditions. In other words, were our largest struct
ures duplicated upon the moon they would be
perceptible, although probably not recognizable,
through the new telescope.
Although this powerful hi •-'.-:■ ■ • may h»
used to examine small objects upon the moon.
M enormous Mill be its light-pntherins power
that any attempt to reflect the Ml image of the
moon into its eyepiece would probably result in
permanently blinding the astronomer whoshouM
observe it.
This, the greatest light gatherer ever desijmed
by man. will be used upca the stars and nc-buke,
the raw material out of which the stars are
made. If the full image of the moon would blind
the observer at its eyepiece, that of thj *uri
would utterly destroy the telescope itself. Hence
the big reflector will be used only for night ob
servation. Throughout each day a refrigerating
plant will cool the great domed observatory in
which it and its fifty-foot tube are to be stored
and will maintain them at th? temperature ct
the coolest hours of the night. This will prevent
the contracticn and expansion of the glass and
any consequent warping of the image or crack-
Ing of the silvered surface.
The most powerful telescope of ta-day is t*nt
at the Yerkes Observatory, with a lens forty
Inches in diameter. But the I rocker r- fleet or.
with its one hundred Inches diameter, will have
for photographic purposes a light collecting
power possibly ten times that of the Yerkcs
lens. It will also reach objects three times as
far away as those reached by the Yerkes tele
scope, and each heavenly body reached will be
shown with far greater detail.
The advantages of the reflector over the bra
are thus very great. Cheapness is one net to be
overlooked. A lens equal hi diameter to the
hundred- Inch reflector would cost at least a
million dollars— if It were possible to anneal a
piece of glass of that — whereas the re
flector itself can be constructed for abcut one
twenty-fifth that amount. In the Tore* tel
escope modem lenses are thought to have
reached their limit of sl*\ so far as usefulness
is concerned. This is because there is a greater
and greater loss of light gathering power the
bigger a lens is made. No light passes through
the reflector, whereas all of that concentrated
by a lens must pass through the g!ass, which
absorbs more and more of it the greater the
amount of glass there Is to penetrate. A re-
Sector brings all light of whatever color to one
focus, whereas a lens focuses rays of different
colors at different places.
Why. then, have big reflecting- telescopes not
been built before, if astronomers have realized
these many advantages? As a matter of fact.
two have been begun. As early as IM." the
Irish Earl of Rosse manufactured, at Parson
town, such a concave mirror. 6 feet, or 72
inches, in diameter. But he was never able to
overcome the engineering difficult** of suitably
mounting his reflector. Astronomers generally
became discouraged at his failure, and little
more was heard about giant reflectors until
about ten years ago. when It was announced
that one of 62 Inches and another of 5t inche3
were being constructed for the projected Ameri
can University at "Washington and the Paris ex
position, respectively. But neither of these was
ever mounted tn a telescope. However, the great
advantage of the mirror over the lens has since
been demonstrated at th* Lick Observatory
English, French Etchings
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