A Senior Field Trip

Abstract

It was a day to which we looked forward during the entire three years of our training. For one thing it was a break in the ward work. Then, too, it was a chance for our entire class to be together all day and to have a time. Also, in common with everyone, we have an abundance of curiosity and interest about this historic disease, leprosy. So, bright and early on a sunshiny April morning we gathered in front of our home, and at last we were settled in a big bus to begin the eighty-mile drive to the leprosarium, which lies about twenty miles off the highway from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. It is situated away from the main thoroughfares of the state on what was once a prosperous plantation on the Mississippi river, whose huge grasscovered levee rises just across the road from the old stone and wrought-iron gates. At the entrance to United States Marine Hospital Number 66, we were stopped by a guard who took our names and entered them into a book and when we left he checked us out. Entering these gates, on our right we saw the administration building which is the original plantation home. It is a beautiful white two-story structure of the typical early Louisiana colonial architecture showing a French provincial influence. It has tall shuttered windows and a two-story gallery with columns. In front of it is an old spreading live oak covered with Spanish moss, which adds a note to the quietness which is characteristic of the institution. We were greeted by three Sisters of Ch rity, members of the Order that has been in charge of the patients since I896. First we were taken on a short tour of the grounds. On the left of the gates is a row of homes for the staff who are Marine officers. They live in modern houses along a flower-lined walk. In the center of the campus are the ever-present flagpole and cann signifying this as a government institution. The Sisters showed us the work that is being done on a building project of the government to rehouse the inmates. They also showed us the site of their new home soon to be erected.