Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/29

 There is one great drawback to the merits of Santarem. This is the prevalence here of the terrible leprosy. It seems, however, confined to certain families, and I did not hear of a well-authenticated case of a European being attacked by it. I once visited many of the lepers in company of an American physician. They do not live apart; family ties are so strong, that all attempts to induce people to separate from their leprous relatives have failed; but many believe that the malady is not contagious. The disease commences with glandular swellings in different parts of the body, which are succeeded by livid patches on the skin, and at the tips of the fingers and toes. These spread, and the parts embraced by them lose their sensibility, and decay. In course of time, as the frightful atrophy extends to the internal organs, some vital part is affected, and the sufferer dies. Some of the best families in the place are tainted with leprosy; but it falls on all races alike; white, Indian, and negro. I saw some patients who had been ill of it for ten and a dozen years; they were hideously disfigured, but bore up cheerfully; in fact, a hopeful spirit, and free, generous living had been the means of retarding in them the progress of the disorder; none were ever known to be cured of it. One man tried a voyage to Europe, and was healed whilst there, but the malady broke out again on his return. I do not know whether the dry and hot soil of Santarem has anything to do with the prevalence of this disease; it is not confined to this place, many cases having occurred at Pará, and in other provinces, but it is nowhere so rife as here; the evil fame of the