1900 THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS ' I57 



is believed, to a period about 4600 B.C. In Persia, India, 

 China, and Japan there are very ancient records of its 

 existence. The first case mentioned in Europe is described 

 by Aristotle in 345 B.C. ; and from that time onwards the 

 disease has been over and over again depicted in terms so 

 clear and accurate, as to leave no doubt whatever that the 

 leprosy of to-day is in every particular precisely the same 

 disease which was known in classical days under the term 

 Elephantiasis Grcccorum. In the Middle Ages most 

 exact descriptions were given by men learned in the 

 medicine of the day, such as Theodoric of Bologna, 

 Lanfranc of Milan, Barchuone of Barcelona, the famous 

 Guy de Chauliac, and many others. Often the most 

 minute and detailed account is given of the various 

 symptoms which the physician ought to look for in 

 examining a suspected person, and the exact method is 

 pointed out by which he ought to proceed with his 

 examination before venturing to consign a suspected per- 

 son to the seclusion of a leper hospital, and thus for ever 

 doom him to be a despised " child of St. Lazarus."* 



It is but little realized how very widely spread was the 

 disease over the whole of Europe in the Middle Ages. 

 Evidence of this is afforded by the records still existing 

 of the laws and regulations, some of the most stringent 

 nature, dealing with the unfortunate lepers, and also from 

 the enormous number of lazarettos or leper-houses that 

 were erected for their reception. A list of over 150 of 

 these existing in Great Britain has been compiled, and it 

 is said that there were no less than 2000 in France. It 

 is no doubt true that many other diseases were confounded 

 with leprosy, and that, especially later on when leprosy 

 was dying out in Europe, a very large number of the 

 occupants of the leper-houses were not lepers. But 



* Warrant of Edward IV. to examine a leper, 1468 (Simpson, Edinburgh Mi'diral 

 and Surgical Journal, 1841, 154.) 



