Hunt for leprosy cure
THE Fiji Times founder George Littleton Griffiths and his son, Arthur, were involved in the frantic search for a cure for leprosy in the early 1900s.
This was at a time before to lepers’ isolation and shipment to Makogai Island.
One of George’s employees, Beni, had knowledge of dispensing traditional herbal medicines.
So when a reward for a cure for leprosy was offered in the colony, Beni approached the Griffiths family and revealed to them that he knew of a possible cure and had used it to treat many lepers, including his wife Salanieta.
His statement seemed so feasible that George promised he would help by demonstrating his cure in Suva so that “a bona fide claim could be put before the British Government”.
George got a Dr Corney, the colony’s chief medical office for Suva at the time to provide accommodation for three patients so that Beni’s treatment could be tested.
With the help of Ratu Joni Mataitini, then a local medical officer, it did not take Beni long to produce three lepers from Kaba in Tailevu.
They were given beds in one of the wards at the general hospital at Korovou in Suva. Later three small thatched huts were built at Walu Bay and the lepers were transferred there.
Beni’s principal herb was sourced six miles from Suva where it grew. Its identity was kept a secret.
“The collecting of the herbs was left to me and I was secretly told the kind of herb so I might see that a regular supply be provided without anyone finding out where and what I collected. I was also given demonstration of the technique of preparation,” Arthur Griffiths said in his book, Memories of Fiji.
Arthur was George’s eldest son, who took over the business reigns when his father died in 1908.
At 4am, Arthur combed Tamavua’s hills to collect enough herbs for the treatment.
Dr Corney was a member of the British Medical Association and had reservations, citing “ethics” as a reason.
Beni worked diligently and in no time, all sores on the three lepers were healed.
“In three months I was able to wipe my hand over the pink-skinned thoroughly healed feet of the man which three months previously had been festering masses of proud fresh,” Arthur said.
Despite this, Dr Corney reluctantly admitted that while patients were healed there was no guarantee they were healed permanently. He refused to write a statement that the lepers were cured through Beni’s herbal treatment.
George wrote a long statement of the “discovery” and accompanying facts in an effort to “stir some recognition for the benefit of mankind”.
This was later forwarded to London but was not received with any enthusiasm.
“The absence of response caused disappointment to my father to such an extent that he allowed the matter to become dormant, and Beni, very disappointed, returned to his district,” Arthur said.
Soon after George’s death, Arthur befriended Dr Stibbe, a medical practitioner who lived near his home on Waimanu Rd. He told him of Beni’s “discovery”.
Dr Stibbe showed great interest and asked to observe Beni’s leprosy treatment and make medical notes.
As a rest, Beni and Arthur helped treat a girl named Mary Fitzpatrick and in three months her skin condition was healed.
However, while this treatment was administered to Mary, the Legislative Council had passed a law that lepers in the colony be collected and sent to the newly-built leper colony on Makogai.
■ The above article was compiled using the book Memories of Fiji written by Arthur Griffiths, son of The Fiji Times founder George Littleton Griffiths.