From the Bookshelf

The Colony is a history of the large leper colony from its inception in 1866 up through the present. It is not a pretty story. Anyone entertaining the benefits of a politically managed medical enterprise will find no comfort here. These exiled unfortunates suffered from pillage, rape, neglect, malnutrition, violence, and exposure. Slapdash diagnosis by government-hired doctors resulted in perhaps a majority not even having the disease for which they were expelled from mainstream society.

Those lepers who fared best were those who were able to exert some influence over their treatment through outside contacts or financial resources. Those who had neither, the majority, were at the often inadequate mercy of the government.

Read more of Dr. Terrell's book review here.