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Working Nurse l WorkingNurse.com 21 September 7–October 5, 2020 first by horse-drawn cart and then by raft along the River Lena to Yakutsk. On June 22, she began a 2,000-mile journey on horseback to Vilyuysk, where she had learned there was a colony of lep- ers. It was now summer in Siberia, which meant swarms of mosquitos, fires and ferocious thunderstorms as well as bears and wolves. Marsden carried a whip and a revolver, although she didn't know how to use either weapon. Upon reaching the Vilyuysk district, Marsden found more than 70 lepers living in the northeastern forests in terrible squalor. Scorned and feared by their neighbors, they subsisted on handouts and scraps of often- rotten food, lacking help even to bury their dead. Marsden was horrified by the sight, declaring that "some of the worst details are too repulsive to write about, even for the sake of increasing sympathy." Exhausted, Marsden began the long journey back, reaching Moscow that December. She spent the next few months in Moscow and St. Petersburg, reporting what she'd seen and pleading for funds to establish a proper settlement and hospital for the Vilyuysk lepers. Marsden later claimed that she did find the legendary herb, but was vague about the details, saying only that "it is not a cure for leprosy, it only alleviates the suffering." (It may have been a local herb called kutchutka, but Marsden declined to pro- vide samples for testing.) Portrait of a Scandal In 1892, Marsden wrote a book about her experiences, On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Siberian Lepers, which earned her a fellowship in the Royal Geographical Society and many lecture engagements. However, she soon found herself under attack. On the ship from New Zealand in 1889, Marsden had become involved with an English widow named Ellen Hewett. Hewett traveled with Marsden in the months prior to her Russian expedition, but their rela- tionship had ended badly. Hewett subse- quently claimed that Marsden had used her for her money, and that Marsden's entire leprosy crusade was a scam. The New Zealand press seized on those and other accusations (including the allega- tion of another former acquaintance that Marsden had committed insurance fraud in 1885), as did an American writer named Isabel Hapgood. Hapgood had never met Marsden, but seemed determined to pub- licly vilify her at every opportunity. Investigations of Marsden's charitable work found no financial misconduct, but the revelation of her affairs with women proved damaging. Although sexual rela- tionships between women weren't illegal in England, they were considered highly indecent, which hurt Marsden's social standing as much as the fraud accusations. Marsden attempted to salvage the situ- ation by converting to Roman Catholicism in 1895 and founding the St. Francis Leper Guild (now called the St. Francis Leprosy Guild), but the scandal dogged her for the rest of her life. She did have the small satisfaction of outliving Hapgood, who died in 1928. Although her quest for the rare herb was a dead end, Marsden's efforts on behalf of the Vilyuysk lepers were not in vain. The leprosy hospital for which she'd raised money opened in 1897; it later became a psychiatric hospital and eventu- ally a boarding house for the elderly and invalid. Today, she is still warmly remem- bered throughout the region. ___________________________________ Aaron Severson is the associate editor of Working Nurse. You can find his recent historical features, "William Rathbone VI (1819-1902), Father of English District Nursing" and "A Brief History of Measles and Its Vaccines," at WorkingNurse.com. WN RUSSIAN ADVENTURE 1. Kate Marsden (middle) with Princess Shachovksy of Russia (center right), flanked by sisters of mercy bound for Siberia, 1892. The Russian royal family supported Marsden's quest. 2. Marsden in her cold-weather traveling gear, with a map of the route through Siberia behind her. 3. Setting off from Yakutsk to Vilyuysk by horseback. 4. Marsden's 1892 book is still in print today. 5. Despite the quixotic nature of her journey, Marsden is considered a heroine in Siberia, as shown by this monument in Yakutsk. (Photo: Siberian Times) Facing page: Marsden sometimes wore her nurse's uniform and medals to meet with Russian officials. 1 2 3 4 5