Nuhou, Volume II, Number 12, 22 August 1873 — What is our "Leprosy?" [ARTICLE]

What is our "Leprosy?"

"We shoul(1 like to have it c!early de6cribed, by' lcompetent meeUeal authority. We have got the I iiame of Jeprosy frum the .Bible ; aud some people ' woul4lrefer u8 to'Leviticus for the and ■ cure of the di6ease ; but an ailment that wae indicated by si a jellow thin hahy' is hardly the j one with whieh we have to contend ; and the re- | medial _agency employed of tvvo birds,—oue to be killed " over running wafcer," and the other tobe dipped in the blood, and then set loose and afterwarde, to touch with the blood of alambtbe 14 tip pf the right ear., the thumb of the rigbt and thegreat toe of the right foofc of him that was to be cloansed, ?? will hardly satisfy the medical esperierice of even our native kahunas. The aeeount. of the Bible no doubt describes avariety of the cutaneous diseases pccullarly to Aeia, and the Ilebrew original for leprosy does , nct indicatc a Jistinctly dcfmcd type of discase ; | and we ought not. to use a term adopted to desigi nate Asiatic skin disease some hundreds of years | a E° ? ought to seientifical]y determine the i precise charaeter of the ailment that is eatinginto : the vitals of the Hawaiian people; and have | clearly established medical data to warrant us to i undertake the terrible duty of sundering families, iand eending hunian beings to perpetual exile, and to a living tomb.