Untitled

"388 CHINA MISSION YEAR BOOK.Leprosy inChina*Of all diseases that afflict humanity leprosy is undoubtedly the most loathsome and hideous as well asthe most ancieut and persistent.There are evidences that the east gave birth to thisdisease. Certainly for very many hundreds of yearsChina has had it within and around her borders. Duringall this time so called specifics have in turn been introduced in many places, tried and discarded. All attemptsto treat the disease successfully have, even up to thistime, proved entirely futile.Sir Patrick Manson, our highest authority in tropical medicine, himself for years a resident in China, hasstated that there are probably more lepers in this countrythan in any other. This statement has recently beendisputed, but on what authority it is difficult to ascertain. Before another edition of this Year Book ispublished it is hoped by a series of pertinent questions, addressed to foreign residents in all parts of thisEmpire, to ascertain reliable facts on this interestingpointĊhina s attitude to the question of leprosy has, forthe most part, been that of indifference. That pity forothers" so often enjoined by her sages seems sadlyawanting in her treatment of the sick and diseased whoabound throughout the land. There would seem to be"foci"special for this disease. Thus in the north itis rarely met with. In the west it is also said to beseldom seen. The streets of any of the cities in CentralChina testify to its prevalence there. It is on thesouthern coast line, however, that the disease abounds.Here and there may be found instances where theofficials have been doling out a pitiful allowance to thepoor sufferers residing in the leper villages. Not tillthe constraining love of Christ moved the Christianchurches of the homelands to succour the leper was anyreally effective work done among this needy class of