Medicine: Leper Loose

A lion sauntering down Broad Street could scarcely have disconcerted Philadelphians more than the news that for six years a leper had been wandering in their midst. Very red were the faces of some Philadelphia doctors. For the victim, a poor 67-year-old Russian Jew, with the typical leonine face of a skin leper, has been in & out of half a dozen Philadelphia clinics, where he was treated for body lice, sinus trouble, hardening of the arteries, a broken hip. At last doctors at Presbyterian Hospital, after treating him off & on for two years, diagnosed his most important ailment. Leprosy is extremely rare—there are only about 350 cases (mostly from coastal cities) in the U.S. leprosarium in Louisiana (TIME, Feb. 26, 1940).

Said last week’s Annals of Internal Medicine: “This man’s wife died of leprosy eight years previously. He had at tended various clinics and many local institutions both before and concurrently with his visits to our clinics. In his peregrinations about the city for six years or more a great many physicians examined him in the various dispensaries . . . and all completely overlooked the diagnosis. During this time, members of the community were exposed, for the patient mingled with others and even visited public baths regularly.” (Fortunately for Philadelphians, leprosy is not very catching.)