The name Mai-Pakeh was given it by an accident, a foreigner saying to a native that he had a disease such as they had in China.

There are but six Chinese in the Molokai leper settlement, and there are three white men there.
The leprosy of the Islands is a disease of the blood, and not a skin disease.

It can be caught only, I am told, by contact of an abraded surface with the matter of the leprous sore; and doubtless the familiar habit of the people, of many smoking the same pipe, has done much to disseminate it.
Its first noticeable signs are a slight puffiness under the eyes, and a swelling of the lobes of the ears.

To the practiced eyes of Dr.Trousseau these signs were apparent where I could not perceive them until he laid his finger on them.

Next follow symptoms which vary greatly in different individuals; but a marked sign is the retraction of the fingers, so that the hand comes to resemble a bird's claw.