The Prince of Wales took the chair at the meeting
of the Committee to promote a Father Damien Memorial Fund, in the Indian room at Marlborough House on Monday, and pro- posed in simple and manly terms the foundation of a fund with the threefold object,—(1), of erecting a fitting memorial to Father Damien on the spot at Molokai where his remains are interred ; (2), of establishing a leprosy ward in some London hospital, and a travelling studentship for the proper study of the disease in the places where it is most common ; and (3), of a full inquiry into the leprosy of India, where there are said to be no fewer than a quarter of a million of lepers. The Prince caused a good deal of excitement by saying that there is known to be a leper whose case was recently com- mented on by a Medical Society, and some of whose fingers have been eaten off by the disease, who is employed in a London meat market. But the statement, though warmly challenged, was afterwards fully verified. Sir James Paget supported the Prince's proposal, and even held out hopes that, with proper study, means might be found either to cure or to root out the disease. He reminded his hearers that seven or eight leper hospitals were at one time needed in London, and that the disease had all but vanished here, though we hardly know how or why. The Rev. Hugh Chapman, who did so much to assist Father Damien by raising a fund for him in this country, said a few earnest words in support of what was contemplated, and all the resolutions were agreed to. We ourselves feel great doubt whether, with the few cases of leprosy to be found here, the establishment of a leprosy ward in a London hospital can be productive of much useful result.
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