The strange case of John Early. A study of the stigma of leprosy.

Leprosy has undoubtedly been the least understood disease of man in the United States. To the public it has been regarded as a disease apart, not only a manifestation of uncleanliness but also deeply discrediting to the person who is so affiicted and feared as a highly contagious calamity rising out of the dank mists of the medieval ages. When one is pronounced a "leper" in our society, he is often stigmatized, denied full social acceptance and shorn of his individual rights. Such a man was John Early, not only the most flamboyant and bizarre victim of leprosy in Am erican history but also one of the more tragic. This unlikely candidate, in his unique way, did more to improve the plight of persons with leprosy in the United States than did almost anyone else of his time. John Ruskin Early was born on a farm in the western part of North Carolina in 1874 and lived in that area until he was twentythree years old. In 1896 he enlisted in the United States Army and served for nine years, rising to the rank of corporal. Taking part in the Spanish-American War, Early was stationed in Cuba from 1898 to 1900 and suffered severely from malaria. Subsequently, he was sent to the Philippine Islands until 1902, where he saw action against the Filipino insurrectionist army of Emilio Aguinaldo, and was then transferred to San Francisco and then to Plattsburg, New York. All this while, with the exception of his bout with malaria, this large, well-built man, had always enjoyed good health. The likelihood of his exposure to leprosy while in the Philippines is cOlToborated by the studies of Aycock and Gordon (2), and Hasseltine (25).