1900 THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 165 



viewed and examined," and if he finds her lo be leprous 

 " to cause her to be removed, in as decent a manner as 

 possible, from intercourse with other people, and have 

 her betake herself immediately to a secluded place as is 

 the custom, &c." 



The Sheriff called in two " Doctors in Arts and Medi- 

 cine," who report as follows :— " We have examined her 

 person, touched and handled her, and made mature, dili- 

 gent, and proper investigation. On going through upward 

 of twenty-five of the more marked signs of general leprosy, 

 we do not find that she can be proved to be leprous, by 

 them or a sufficient number of them, .... and it is not 

 possible for any to labour under the disease in whom the 

 greater part of these signs are not found. . . . We find 

 .... that she is utterly free and untainted, and we are 

 prepared to declare the same more fully by scientific pro- 

 cess if and wherever it shall be necessary." 



On the strength of this certificate, which I have been 

 informed is one of the earUest, if not the earhest medical 

 certificate preserved, we may be allowed to hope that poor 

 Johanna Nightingale was allowed by her neighbours to 

 pass the rest of her days in peace. 



It certainly appears that medical men of those days were 

 fully impressed with the very serious responsibilities thrown 

 upon them in connection with the disease. Bernhard 

 Gordon, first Professor of Medicine at the School of 

 Montpellier, devotes a very long chapter to the subject* 

 in a book written about 1305, and says that there are two 

 sets of signs, the occult or premonitory and the infallible ; 

 if the patient shows evidence of the first set, he is to be 

 watched and observed, but not to be adjudged for separa- 

 tion ; he is only to be secluded in a leper-house if he 

 manifestly exhibits the infallible signs ; and he enjoins the 



* Feind, History of Physic, 1758, Vol. ii., p. 262. 



