In the summer of 1887 the Lungegaard’s hospital got a sample of the oil, and nine male lepers underwent Dr. Dougall’s treatment, the only difference being that they took a warm bath instead of a bath in running water, which Dr. Dougall probably ordered because he had no bath-rooms at his disposal. Every morning and evening the patients took 15 grains of the mixture of equal parts of oil and lime water. In the forenoon, from 9 till 11, and in the evening from 5 till 7, they rubbed each other in a room at a temperature of 26 to 28° R., with oil 1 part and lime water 3 parts. In the morning they rubbed themselves with dry earth, and took a warm bath before re-applying the oil. The treatment led to no results. In some of the patients the disease advanced very little, but, nevertheless, the gurjun oil had no effect. As leprosy, so far as we know, is the same disease in the East Indies as in Norway, it was surprising that the gurjun oil should cure it in the one place and not in the other. Later trials of the treatment in India have had the same negative results as in Norway.
Chaulmoogra, which the medical department of Madras has used with success, is the oil pressed from the seeds of Gynocardia odorata, Lindl. Hydrocarpus odoratus, Lindl. The oil is given internally (2 grs. in an ounce of milk) twice daily, and externally, there is rubbed in a mixture of oil 1 part, and olive oil 16 parts, followed some hours after by a bath. We are told that the progress of the disease is stopped by a persevering use of the oil. The skin becomes smoother and more elastic, the patient becomes more energetic, the discolorations disappear, and so too does the anæsthesia, either partly or completely. Ulcerations heal, but promptly break down again. Besides the treatment, a generous diet is given, especially vegetables, milk and meat; spices and spirits are not allowed. Dr. Arjoon says that the tuberous form heals more easily than the mixed leprosy, and that anæsthetic leprosy is the most obstinate. When the disease is inherited there is no hope of a cure, and it is only in early cases that a cure can be expected. Further, he thinks that the permanence of the cure is doubtful.
In the Lungegaard’s hospital three tuberous and two anæsthetic patients were treated with chaulmoogra oil. The treatment was continued from eight months to a year, but the results were, as with the other remedies, nil.
Father Etienne sent to the Lungegaard’s Hospital from Port of Spain, Trinidad, a quantity of pills containing a vegetable, Hoang-nan, which he had received from some missionaries in Ting-King. He had used the pills for three years in leprosy with surprisingly good results. In several patients all the external symptoms of the disease disappeared, and he had good hopes of their complete cure. His report seeming to guarantee the remedy, it was given a trial in the Lungegaard’s Hospital. After prolonged use it proved to be absolutely useless, and, since no more has been heard from him, Father Etienne has probably been disappointed with his later results.
Father Damien also received from Ting-King a supply of pills for the cure of leprosy, which were, no doubt, of the same nature. He found them to consist of alum. sulph., pts. 1.5, Realgar 2.5, and Hoang-nan 2.5.
Hoang-nan belongs to the Euphorbiaceæ; the cortex contains a powerful poison which is the active remedy. At first Father Damien believed the remedy to be of some benefit “to us poor lepers”—he was then a leper—but further experience showed him that the remedy was, like so many others, unsatisfactory.
The last remedy to be mentioned is one which once attracted much notice, and on which the French academy allowed Dr. Gibert to write a report. The remedy is Assacou or Ussacou, Brazilian names of the tree Hura Braziliensis, Martin, of the family Euphorbiaceæ. It is considered very poisonous.
Several physicians in the West Indies have tried it, and amongst them Dr. Maldur, who treated four lepers in Santa-Caza da Misericordia, with, he believed, great benefit; other trials, however, failed, and the remedy has been laid aside.
The foregoing reports of the results of the treatment of leprosy with different specific remedies, are taken from the experience of the late Dr. Danielssen, who spent half a century trying to cure leprosy, and we shall now give some of the various methods of treatment he used.
Early in the development of bacteriological research, Dr. Danielssen already suspected the bacterial nature of the disease, and began to use germicides.