The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 11, March 10, 2002, Article 5

A VISIT TO THE CULION LEPER COLONY

  One interesting collectible item are tokens of leper
  colonies.  Tokens were used by the population instead of
  local currency because of the fear of spreading the disease.
  One of the most prominent of these colonies was the
  Culion Leper Colony in the Philippines.  A web search
  turned up the following account of a visit to the Culion
  colony from the autobiography of surveyor Captain
  Thomas J. Maher, entitled, "Around the World in Forty
  Years":

  "Getting back to the Colony, our principal triangulation
  station was in the center of the town.  The lepers gathered
  around the instrument; they were curious but made no
  attempt to touch anything. We were instructed by the
  Medico-in-Charge not to touch them nor permit them to
  touch us. I understand that at this time there was an
  American, an excellent machinist and an inmate, and that
  some Americans had shaken hands with him.  I never
  inquired as to details.

  The Colony was most unusual, a credit to the officials
  who governed it and to those who provided the funds for
  its operation.  It was clean and sanitary. The patients did
  not have to work and if they did, they received payment.
  There was a special coinage which never left the Colony.
  However, an inmate could send funds to friends or relatives
  outside by depositing his earnings in the Colony bank
  where a draft would be drawn on the Bank of the Philippine
  Islands, Manila, for payment to the party designated.

  The lepers who were in bad shape were hospitalized. An
  invitation to visit the hospital was not accepted.  The
  appearance of such human misery would not be pleasant
  and I believe could only be considered by the patients as
  satisfying morbid curiosity.  If we were medical officers,
  such a visit would be professional.  The lepers had
  considerable freedom. They fished in adjacent waters from
  bamboo rafts. Attempts at escape were infrequent."

     http://www.lib.noaa.gov/edocs/maherphi.html

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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