NEED FOR A HOME FOR EUROPEAN AND EURASIAN LEPERS--OUR PUBLIC MEETING.
Dr. Wallace, a friend who came to lunch, on talking things over
with me, proposed that instead of labouring away every week at the
Government Leper Asylum under many vexatious restrictions, it would be
better to try and open a Home for European and Eurasian lepers where
they could find shelter and comfort, and be away from natives similarly
afflicted. I entered gladly into the spirit of the proposition, but
felt doubtful as to whether sufficient money would be forthcoming
to carry on such an institution. We did not want it to rest on the
shoulders of any one man or woman; but desired it to be properly
managed by a competent committee appointed for the purpose. I was in
favour of putting the proposed Home in charge of Sisters of Charity,
who, the Reverend Mother Matilda of the Loretto Convent, told me, would
come out from England if we could insure them a home and food, and that
they would devote their lives to this holy cause. This idea was not
generally approved of by my Protestant friends, who said that Catholics
would be certain to want to proselytise the persons under their charge,
and that, although the Sisters would devote their whole time to the
care of the lepers, my subscriptions would fall off directly I placed
them under any special religious body. Besides, there exists a deal of
suspicious distrust of Catholics in India, which has arisen, I think,
from jealousy; for it is generally, if reluctantly, conceded that
Catholics manage their public charitable institutions far better than
do persons of other denominations. We decided that it would be best
to put Dr. Wallace’s proposal to the test of public opinion, and to
call a meeting at the Dalhousie Institute, which has a hall that is
used for such purposes. We intended to put forward two resolutions
at this meeting. The first was to show the need of such a home; for
although the Government Asylum gave shelter to European and Eurasian
lepers, it placed them under conditions which few of them, however
sorely pressed they might be by their misery, would accept. Dr. Wallace
promised to speak on this point, and to tell the audience, as he had
already informed us, that he knew, from his own personal experience,
of from twenty to thirty of these hapless ones who were living in
their own homes in Calcutta to the danger of their friends and of the
general public. Besides this score or so in the metropolis, there
must be hundreds of European and Eurasian lepers scattered throughout
the length and breadth of India. Only a very small proportion of
these cases come before the notice of the English residents; for
the relations of such lepers naturally make every possible effort
to prevent the fact of the existence of the disease in their family
becoming known on account of the awful ban it would lay on all the
other members. I need hardly say that no one, in his or her senses,
would knowingly marry into a family affected with the hereditary taint
of leprosy, nor even associate on intimate terms with such comparative
outcasts. Owing to the perverseness of human nature, such instances
do sometimes occur. One was of a young gentleman, good-looking, well
connected, charming in his manners, of great natural abilities and of
irreproachable conduct, who fell in love with a young lady whose family
had a trace of native blood in it, and laboured under the whispered
stigma of leprosy. The young gentleman’s relations used every means
in their power to prevent their union, and told him distinctly that
if it took place they would know him no more. Their entreaties and
threats were in vain; the marriage took place; some children were born;
a few years passed happily despite the alienation of his friends, and
then the effects of the dire malady broke out in the young wife. The
husband tried, with rare heroism, to keep a bright face on the sorrow
he endeavoured to hide, and obtained the best medical advice in the
world, but all in vain; for the disease went steadily on to its end
in its uncheckable course. Among others in Calcutta, we knew one who
regularly attended church and sat beside his fellow worshippers; a
second went to meetings of the local Salvation Army and used to shake
hands with the members of his religious sect; a third lived with his
parents, brothers and sisters, none of whom had developed the malady;
a fourth lived with his wife and family (the woman and children being
apparently healthy) and eked out a precarious living by begging. We had
heard of a planter, who, while we were in Calcutta, brought a brother
of his, that was afflicted with leprosy, down to Calcutta with the
object of placing him in the Leper Asylum; but, on seeing that it was
altogether unsuitable to the requirements of a white man, he took him
back with him to his own home. My husband knew an officer in the Indian
Army, who was quartered in the same station with him, and who became a
leper. When his condition could be no longer concealed, in the event
of his going out in public, he was virtually made a prisoner of, in
his house, by his friends, who screened him off from outside gaze till
he died. My husband also knew of an equally sad case of a gentleman
in Government employment in India, who contracted leprosy, and whose
brother (his only relation in that country), as soon as he became aware
of the fact, would no longer come to see him or hold any intercourse
with him. Although some of his indigo planting friends, with the
kindness of heart which characterises all Indian planters, used to
visit him from time to time and try to cheer him up, he had to live and
die with only his Native servants near him. We know of two other cases
of leprosy among acquaintances of our own in India; but these are only
in their first stages, and are not sufficiently advanced to prevent the
sufferers from appearing in public. I may mention that the _Lancet_ of
the 18th July of this year (1891) reports a case of leprosy at Lisburn
(Ireland) in a man who had contracted the disease at Rangoon (Burma),
where he had resided ten years. There have been many other instances of
Europeans contracting the disease abroad. Any destitute white man who
became a leper in India would have to remain there; as the Government,
very rightly, would not send him home.
[Illustration: FEMALE LEPERS.
_p. 65._]
What we contended and still maintain, is, that if a hospital were
formed near Calcutta, or at some other convenient centre, for the
reception of European and Eurasian lepers, and if it afforded a
comfortable home where medical comforts and proper medical attendance
were obtainable, the large majority of these poor creatures would
gladly avail themselves of the opportunity of obtaining a place of
rest, of receiving medical aid, and of relieving their friends of
their burdensome presence. I may point out in passing, that such an
asylum should, within reasonable bounds, be replete with means of
making the lives of the inmates as bright as possible. While enforcing
strict segregation, the patients should have ample room inside the
precincts of the institution to walk about, and to engage in any
harmless amusements suitable to their condition. Besides this, they
should be regarded as sick people, whose ailment medicine and proper
hygienic treatment can do much to relieve, even if they cannot, with
our present state of knowledge, stay its course. In India, European and
Eurasian lepers have no such place to enter. If they go to the Calcutta
Asylum, they will be treated as Natives; they will have no “medical
comforts;” they will be fed in a manner unsuitable to Europeans, or to
the requirements of their disease, which demands a liberal regimen;
they will not be able to get a warm bath; nor will they have attendants
to wash and dress them, if they be too weak or helpless to do so for
themselves; they will have no grounds to walk in; they will have no
means of recreation, as might be afforded by a library, a garden for
them to cultivate, etc.; nor will they even have punkahs to cool the
air and to keep off the flies during the intense heat of the summer;
nor mosquito nets to render sleep possible at night. In making these
remarks, I do not want to disparage the management of the Calcutta
Leper Asylum, which is professedly intended only for the reception of
Natives; but I do, most emphatically, desire to point out the pressing
necessity of a hospital or asylum for European and Eurasian lepers
either near Calcutta or in some other convenient centre in India, and
of their being placed in a more comfortable position than they could
hope to obtain in their own homes. The second resolution was for the
formation of a committee, and for the discussion of ways and means to
obtain the necessary funds.
On the morning fixed for the meeting, we were delighted to read in all
the local papers an announcement to the effect that Government had
decided to take over the lepers, and to build separate and suitable
accommodation for European and Eurasian patients. This notice removed
from us the burden of the undertaking we had proposed to attempt; for
it would not be necessary for us to try and organise a home in the
face of such an announcement. However, as we had called the meeting
together, and it was then too late to postpone it or to explain matters
in any other way, we decided to allow it to take place, and to simply
put forward our first resolution showing the immediate want of such a
home, and to let the matter rest for the present, pending the action of
the Government. A few hours before the meeting took place, my husband
met one of the members of the committee of the District Charitable
Society, who warned him that a hostile demonstration had been prepared
to nullify the effect of any resolutions brought forward by him. This
gentleman informed my husband that the paid secretary of the District
Charitable Society, whose father was the paid superintendent of the
Leper Asylum, had sent round a circular to all whom he thought would
help him, requesting them to attend our meeting and to support the
counter resolutions or amendments which his party would bring forward.
The initiative in this step was taken either by the secretary himself,
or by someone who used him as a willing agent; for the sanction of
the committee had not been obtained in taking it, nor had it been
canvassed. The member of the committee in question expressed his strong
sympathy with us, and regretted that his official position prevented
him from according us his public support. On pointing out the extreme
impropriety of the hostile action on the part of the secretary of the
District Charitable Society, I may mention that he is a young Eurasian,
whose social standing and personal qualifications in no way entitled
him to address his employers, by circular, in the manner he did.
Consequently, I conclude, that however warm and interested his feelings
may have been, he acted solely and entirely from secret orders, the
responsibility of which, or of an inquiry into his unauthorised
conduct, rested on the President of the District Charitable Society.
The meeting came off, and the only resolution that was put forward
was one to recognise the necessity for a separate Asylum or place
for European and Eurasian lepers, apart from that for the Natives.
My husband, who moved it, contended that as Government had decided
to take up the work, we could do no more than show our readiness to
help to strengthen the hands of the Government in every possible way,
and to express our opinion that such an institution was sadly needed.
He then informed the audience of the private circular, and appealed
to his hearers if it was fair or right for men to come down to this
meeting with the deliberate intention of thwarting a good work, the
object of which was solely and entirely to mitigate the sufferings of
the most miserable of our fellow citizens. The opposition came forward
with printed amendments to controvert arguments our side had not put
forward, owing to the fact that such arguments were not required now
that Government had announced its intention to take up the matter.
The fatal itching of speechifying was so strong on these gentlemen,
that they did not see the absurdity of combatting unspoken words.
Notwithstanding their eloquence and the presence of their supporters,
their amendment, when put to the vote, was lost.