1959-06-10 — Page 4

THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1959.

Five Million Still The London life of people like

Suffer From This Ancient Scourge

A

By FORREST PARK

NEW treatment has been devised in Britain for a sinister-sounding disease which was rampant all over Europe in the Middle Ages and still claims some five million sufferers throughout the world-mainly in Africa, the Orient, and South

America.

1

umes

The disease is Jepony, scourge of mankind from unclent thaes and not, as many hnagine, a mahaly which was always con- fined to individuals of lowly and degroded status. Persons of xalted rank were attacked by

errot. Ds. well as folk of the humblest station, Kings, per hops, were speclully exposed to the risk of infection, since they were so allen brought into cor- fact with crowds of people he- longing to all walks of life.

They were the traders of arini. in former days, too, ond the incidence of all kinds of ills seemed to gali impetus in pro- longed campaigns, frequently striking down more warriors generations. than were ever killed or disabled in actual batlles,

demonstrated in recent that it is curable, however. 11 has so been shown that the age-old practice of banishing lipers from healthy communi- ties, and thus enforcing segrega- tion of the sufferers, was a It generally grievous

One Janet king who died of leprosy war Rubert the First uf Scotland (The Bruer"), who auccumbed to the dread affliction in June, 1329. And the Palace of SI James's which has long grac- ed the London acene, and 1532 by King was built in Henry

Eighth, The

Was erected on the site of a one- rine

where Ieper - Hote

suffering from The diacase had been shut away from their fellow-creatures,

most Leprosy died out in European countries in the 15th and 16th centuries, though in parts of Scandinavia and in fear be quite Innd it continued common until the early part

It has be the present century.

rurity in Europe, and is rurity over the greater purt of North America, though there have been outbreaks in some of the authern stutes of the U.S.A.

com

Hygiene

It is now regarded as bring tropical or sub- principally a tropical malady, and one aftret- ing peoples whose standard of living and whose ideas of per- non hygiene are stil; backward.

It is not, in fael, us infeellous as its alster-disease tuberculosis, und, even for those in close con- fret with sufferers, it is easy to avold infection by taking sinple precautions such as the weerlog of overalls and rubber gloves when dealing with vlefims, the avoidance of the use of bedding and utensils belonging to victins and, of course, personal clean linese.

Leprosy was formerly be- lieved to be incurable fomong primitive races It was also be lieved to be the outcome of having displeased the gods or disregarded some religious in- Junction), Medical men have

led to concealment of the afflic

tion for as long as possible on the part of victims-und in my case the disease is often infee- Blous for years before it be comes detectable, or. Father, nutiecable.

It was ujso thought at une time that leprosy was hereditary, bicous often i exhibited itself in one family through successive

Multiplies

Then, in 1872, the bacillus which causes leprosy was dis- covered- germ with a waxy covering which renders I slow to multiply but exceedingly hard to destroy.

Apart from attention to diet

in the way of improved nutri- tion, apart also from cleanliness and healthy exercise, treatment for the disense has for many

Ses involved the use of an oil that grows in southern India and

obtained from species of a tree

parts of Southeast Asin-the Chaulougra free, from the fruit of which hydnócúrpus all is drived,

werd

Injections of this chi or pro- paralong containing it found to be beneßelt. Latterly, drugs hove leen synthelle

promin, employed such as which Is kewise injected, and Kharong, which is administered vla the mouth.

Ttat

such progress by methods of treatment is a slow business, so tenacious is the leprosy bacillus, except when the lease is caught in the early stages.

Hence the importance of the now treatment developed by British researchers, for the ud vantage of this treatment is that

it

substantially reduces the time taken in dealing with the leprosy Lucillus even in instances where it has gained a strong hold.

The treatment is based on a new

produced drug

by British The name of the chemists. drug is Elisul, and from initial reports it seems as if it may go fur towards stamping out from the affected areas of the world that cruel infection which was the dread of medieval Europe, and, before it was known there, the scourge of ancient civiliso- lions from north Afṛies to the farthest shores of Asia.

Very Fine Cognac

MARTELL

COR∙D'ON BLE U...... alto THREE STAN VSOP and EXTRA'

Obtainable Everywhere

Sole Agents:-DODWELL & CO., LTD.

AN

Mrs. Dmitrieva

YES, MOSCOW MAY BE DRABBER,

BUT THEY STILL LONG FOR HOME

Nornate motor-car -body of basket- work appearance, burnished coach lamps,

by GEORGE HUTCHINSON

waiting chauffeur seldom have anybody in their Mrs stands by in Holland own homes who is not one of band. Park, Kensington.

themselves.

They

ার

to cach other's houses. They ask people from embassies. other Iron Curtain

Dmitrieva and her hus

I know myself that some 'of the Russian women long to be back In Moscow. There the language barrier, of course. While most if not

of the

Mr Nubar Gulbenkian, owner of this jazzed-up taxi, is visit Ing one of the nearby houses.

party is going on. But, unlike most diplomats in husbands Epeak English, the Inside,

Mr Gulbenkian-and"some 30 this country, they have Hittle wives often know very little. uther people-have come to take real contact with the British, drinks with a member of the, with London life. Soviet Embassy and his wilo.

Exceptional

Discouraged.

This apart, they are evidently discouraged officially from mix- ing too freely with Westerners,

ime to time, And so, trom

Seacor Hrein. Russian retreat,

hide sofas and drab curtains. "

to anything but the most formal They are, perhaps, the lightest,

of relationships with the British. the most self-contained, com

The diplomatie 1st namus 67 Russians at the Embassy. There Is life always like this for the munlly in England.

Yes. the Hussions ore by Russiari diplomatic colony in

are 50 wives, lots of chlidren. Lonion parties, smart com- natuire a warm people, in Lon- Mr Malik, the Ambassador, oska pany, sociable encounters with don, 1 often think, they must all sorts of "top people" to his But there are many more be- chou!- And life prelty irksome. To Embassy in Kensington Palace aldes-indoor servants the rich of the Western world?

He gives excellent feurs, clerks, messengers, wire- Not a bit. This particular the Ernbassy wives, especially, Gardens.

1053 parties.

operators and teachers. party was quite exceptional. il must seem a lonely place.

Regrettably, that is about as Then there is the Soviet Trade Perhaps this inay partly ex- The most striking thing about

between near as most of the Rusaluns get Mission in Highgate. the Russians here is that they plain the break-up

Dealers In Magic

IT has been claimed that after relying on the

practices

By A. ROBERTSON

of witch doctors for countless generations, the native peoples of what used to be called Darkest Africa are at last learning the errors of their ways and are turning to authorised and university-trained medical men for treatment his part in the life of the com- when they are in ill-health.

witch

To some

blood-curdling ferocity, extent, this may be

hunts wherein Incalculable so. Yet, according to recent re- port, there is at least one Afri- numbers of innocent ean witch doctor who has not women were savagely tortured or done to death on the merest been put out of business by the

of encroachment

medical suspicion of sorcery, or simply procedure as civilisailon under because they deviated from the views hold by the majority of people.

slands it.

On the contrary, his skills are so much appreciated and no much in demand by his fel- low-Afrleans that he is cur- rently enjoying some of the fruits the very civilisation which sooffs at his ancient profesion—as, for example, « big new automobile in which he rides around with the aplomb of a dusky potentate.

Chauffeur

or.

munity with a dedicated con- selentiousness, being genuinely convinced that he really does possess powers denied to dinary men. He believes he can wield some influence over much the weather, the factors as cultivation of crops the rearing over Buch in- of cattle, and

human affairs dividual births, marriages, illnesses although he acknowledges that the forces of evil muy prove too strong for him.

instance,

Arhermen

in

Most of the familles Uve

Games? There are PT periods around Bays- and volley ball in the garden. furnished Bots water as the Dmitrievs did- Except during English lessons, and Notting Hill Gate,

Russian is the only language have From what I

seen used in the school, should say that they live com- The Russians even spend their fortably but far less luxuriously weekend breaks together, tak- than foreign diplomats tend to ing_thele_leisure collectively, do in London.

dawn in their They drive Russian ears to Seacox Heath, their own country. House nepr Hawkhurst, on the border of

it was Kent and Sussex.

the The teachers are here because home of the late Lord Goschen. Russians, understandably It is a big. Jate-Victorian enough, do not send their child- stone house looking over an ren to English schools.

undulating park. I found the

the

Black marks

A special bus carries them to grounds rather unkempt, the their own school in Heath Drive, Interior dismal-hide sofas, drab Hampstend.

curtalte, dormitories on the

It has about 120 pupils, bave upper floore.

and girls, of eight to 18. The curriculum is the same or that

in schools back home.

in

Holidays

by

There are no lessons

For long holidays the Russians eitizenship ns such, bul em invariably go home, often phasis is placed on bringing up sea in summer, usually by air the children to be "good Soviet

In winter. citizens.

When flying they like to avoid Punishment? There are black Paris. They disilice the airport. Arm believers in the marks for children, who inls arrangements there. They are efficacy of cod-liver ol long behave. If a child

gels too afraid of losing their luggage in of these the parents are Parts, so they tell me. before scientists advocated many

-(Londum Express Service), Again, burning « spongo for sent for and called to account. The treatment of gulire maY.

For

were

Palace For Mr. K

seem like, folly nowadays, but i men und

it appear that the process 3iberated lodine from the sponge-and lodine. In the form of a special solution figures in twentieth-century this methods of coping with condition.

Black magle, however, has

where survived in the west from time to time the evil culi of Satmatus is brought to light - and 'covers or its depraved devotees flushed out from their infamous gathering places.

Such creatures, of course, are

purts of

Asla

The Art

As for his potentialities in the art of healing-well, some re- markable claims have been made for tribal witch doctors. And while no one but a tribes.

any

And, turning from the sea to

MR Khrushchev is to live in the palace that was

the childhood home of beautiful Princess

the land, how many valuable Margaretha of Sweden, the girl whose broken medical preparations have been romance with plano-playing Mr Robin Douglas- developed from herbs and the Home aroused world interest. The Soviet leader like which were in use as cura-

tives long centuries ago? is going there in August.

For Mr Khrushchev will be

Its position makes it easy to returning the official visit of keep it under strict guard.

During Mr Khrushchev's visit there will be banqueis and re- cepilons.

the Swedish Premier to Moscow in 1056.

It was once sald by an old who dealt in countrywoman vasily different from the witch man would deny that modern healing potions, and who would doctors of Africa and of some medicine can perform "miracles" undoubtedly have been destroy- ed as a witch had the lived in tribal for beyond the scope of Among peoples, the witch doctor is witch doctor, It is too easy to Europe a century or two pre-

The Haga Palace is an 18th

There are also likely to be He does not drive himself. He generally regarded as a prowe ancer at his efforts and overlook vlously!

century building la which political talks and a visit by employs a chauffeur-a veried for, even if he is also looked the fact that same old-fashioned "There a plant in thePrincess Sibylla Sweden ine Russian delegation 10 chauffeur. The Income he upon as a person to be feared, and even primitive remedles world for every allment. brought up her family of five. agricultural areas in southern derives from his extensive circle He is often the most intelligent have been substantiated by up-

All you have to do la And it," i The 30-room palace is set in Sweden. of African 'patients' Is so member of a tribe, and plays to-daje research,

She had a point there,

a large English-style park.

=(London Express Service). princely that he is obliged to maintain une or two clerks to keep check on his mounting fortune. He, personally, is not well up in arithmetic, for he has never had any schooling in the classroom sence of the term and cannot read, write or work out any but the simplest suma.

is talents are confined to witch-doctoring. 4 trade handed down to him from ages part, for he is the off- aloot of a long, long line of spell-binding potion-gi-

veyors.

Folk in lands far removed from the tropical-regious.ot. Africo may raise superför eye brows or curl superior lips at “MethoughtTMd—any"

beings, brought into contact with civilising indences, still being so gullible as to patronise R Forcerer-and. furthermore, pay him with the good money that civilisation has put within their reach as wage-earners' in mines, mills ur on the planta- tions.

Incantations

Isn't family life just swell!

"A little domestic

30

trouble, sir. Your ex- wives' union`says 'that unless you pay them more alimony they're all going to come back to

youj

But let no one forget that witchcraft was a potent dorce right around the world not very long ago, Indeed, it is practised on every inhabited continent today, and probably In every country. It certainly exists in Europe, not excluding Britain, where notions consider themselves to be as enlightened as any in the world.

Sorcery and magic were features of the earliest civilisa- tions. It is said that mumerous elaborate Incantations for deal- ing with maladies and mis- fortunes have been preserved from Assyrian and Babylonian times, and history tells us that all classes in ancient Greece and Rome believed in magic.

With the coming of Chris- Hanity, ie practice of witch- craft took on a sinister aspect in Europe. Men of religion associated I with the dis credited bellefs and rituals of pagon days, and, ultimately, came to regard it as synonymous with devil-worship.

**

In the course of canturies, successiya witch-hunta - broke out all over the western world. (and subsequently in America), witch-hunts that were pursued with relentless vigour and

by CUMMINGS

**Of course, it was our common intellectual interests that drew ma and Biceps together.........”

**Really, darling! You've broken Mummy's · brand new gestiomen friend—and bent - her favourite gutter!""

CICERACE

**And now 1 dedionto this ; remantlo rhaptwiły to my, lwendy, itttle, ult. fifth-

You can quota mo'ga'