BIBLICAL AND MODERN LEPROSY. 797 



BIBLICAL AND MODEKN LEPROSY. 



By GEORGE HENRY FOX, M. D., 



CLINICAL PKOFESSOB OF DISEASES OF THE SKIN - , COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS, 



NEW YOKE. 



THE diseases which prevailed among the children of Israel were 

 doubtless as numerous and as varied as those which now exist, 

 and to a great extent they were probably identical with those affecting 

 humanity at the present time. The most notable one spoken of in the 

 Old Testament is called leprosy. As there exists at the present day 

 a disease called by the same name, a consideration and comparison of 

 the two may prove of interest. 



The leprosy of the present day is found not only in distant parts 

 of the world, but also in our own country. In Egypt, where it doubt- 

 less originated, and has prevailed for several thousand years, it still 

 occurs. In Syria, India, China, and Japan, it is quite common. In 

 Europe it is endemic chiefly along the shores of the Mediterranean 

 and in Norway, although occasional cases are met with from time to 

 time in many of the larger cities. In the West Indies and portions of 

 South America it is also common, and in the Sandwich Islands it has 

 increased rapidly in recent years, and now afflicts a large proportion 

 of the native population. Coming nearer home, we find the disease 

 existing among the Chinese in California, among the Norwegians in 

 Minnesota, among the French and negroes in Louisiana, and among 

 certain French Canadians in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Dur- 

 ing the past ten or fifteen years there have constantly been from 

 one to a half-dozen or more cases in the hospitals of New York city, 

 while other cases have been reported from Boston, Philadelphia, Bal- 

 timore, and other cities. Most of these cases have occurred among 

 sailors or others, who have spent considerable time in the tropics or in 

 regions where leprosy is common, and there contracted the disease. 

 In New York there has occurred but one case in a person who had not 

 been outside of the State, and in this case the origin of the disease 

 could not be explained. It is an extremely difficult matter to deter- 

 mine beyond all doubt whether leprosy spreads only through heredi- 

 tary transmission, or only through direct contagion, or in both ways. 

 The disease is considered, by many who have had the best opportunities 

 for studying it, to be hereditary in some cases, and at the same time 

 capable of being propagated through inoculation. When leprosy once 

 becomes prevalent in a community where vice, ignorance, and filth 

 abound, it usually tends to increase, but it is far from being a highly 

 contagious disease, as is commonly imagined. Physicians and hos- 

 pital nurses have no hesitancy in caring for leprous patients, and the 

 fear of the disease spreading through an intelligent community is 



