1 66 PROC. COTTESWOLD CLUB vol. xiii. (3) 



utmost care and caution on any who may be called upon 

 to examine leprous patients. 



Guy de Chauliac again, perhaps the most celebrated 

 surgeon of the 14th century, wrote on leprosy about 

 1363, and divides the signs or symptoms under six heads, 

 and he then details at very great length the precise mode 

 in which the physician ought to conduct the examination 

 of every suspected case of leprosy referred to him. The 

 examination is to commence one morning, and to be com- 

 pleted the following day, and " in the meantime," says De 

 Chauliac, " let the physician cogitate upon what he has 

 seen, and what he may yet see in the case," because " the 

 injury is very great if he submit to confinement those 

 who ought not to be confined." If, therefore, the patient 

 is found to have some of the signs only " he must be 

 carefully watched and confined to his own house or 

 mansion ; but if he is found with many both unequivocal 

 and equivocal signs, he must be separated, with kind and 

 consoling words, from the people, and committed to the 

 leper-hospital." 



I think I have said enough to show that the question 

 of leprosy in Europe in the Middle Ages was considered 

 of sufficient importance to demand the attention of kings 

 and rulers, and that special legislation afi'ecting it was very 

 widely established. 



Now let us regard the question from a more or less 

 social standpoint, and see what general evidence we have 

 indicating the importance that was attached to it. Nothing 

 in this respect can be more convincing than the fact of 

 the enormous number of Lazarettos that were everywhere 

 established to receive the sufferers from the malady. It 

 is no doubt true that at all times many of the inmates 

 were suffering from other diseases (such especially as 

 syphilis) which were freely confounded with leprosy. No 

 doubt, too, as years passed away, and leprosy became less 



