My Leper Friends. By Mrs. M. H. Hayes. (Thacker and
Co.) —This is a book that ought to be widely known. Mrs. Hayes visited some of the Government asylums for lepers in India; in this volume she describes what she saw there ; and she pleads for contributions to the "Leper Fund." All the profits of the book are to go to this, nor-could there be a more excellent purpose. It is a mistake to suppose that there are no cases of the disease among Europeans and Eurasians in India. Mrs. Hayes mentions several. But it is a deplorable fact that they are not provided for. A European leper has to put up with the accommodation Supplied to the natives,—an arrangement that may not sound very bad, but is in practice a great cruelty. Mrs. Hayes, in fact, brings a very serious indictment against the officials concerned in this matter. When we remember what workhouse and hospital officials do even in this country, where there is so much publicity, and so strong an opinion out-of-doors, it is not difficult to imagine what might go on in a country where there is very little of either. Of course these same officials, after the manner of their kind, take every suggestion or proffer of help as a personal affront. Mrs. Hayes, for instance, goes one day to the Leper Asylum at Calcutta..
The weather is intensely hot, and the smell overpowering. She sends a gallon of phenyle. The "Commissioner of Police" who has the management of the place—a most extraordinary arrangement, by-the-way—sends it back. That is true Bumbledom.
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