1900 THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS I71 



A very ancient well-known leper-house, restricted to 

 females, existed on the site of St. James's Palace in London. 

 Henry VIII. obtained possession of this, which in his time 

 had become a hospital, giving in exchange lands at Chatis- 

 ham in Suffolk. 



But lepers were not always consigned to Lazarettos. 

 Bishop Stapleton, of Exeter, in 1330, having heard that 

 the Vicar of St. Neots in Cornwall had become a leper, 

 appointed one Ralph de Roydene to be his deputy and 

 take charge of him, " since he cannot, without danger, 

 have intercourse with the whole people as he has been 

 accustomed." The part of the vicarage inhabited by 

 the leper is to be walled off from the rest of it, and a 

 new entrance made, for the leper's use. Ralph is to pay 

 him 2s. a week for his maintenance, and once a year 20s. 

 for a new robe, &c. 



According to the tenor of various old civil codes, when 

 a person became affected with leprosy, he was looked 

 upon as legally and politically dead. He lost the privileges 

 of citizenship, and was incapable of being an heir or of 

 disposing of any property that might have belonged to him. 



There is an ancient French document in existence 

 which describes most accurately the official procedure of 

 proclaiming a man a leper. 



The medical examiners having reported upon the case, 

 if their verdict declared the man a leper, a Priest robed 

 with surplice and stole went to his house. He first 

 exhorted him to endure with a patient and penitent spirit 

 the incurable plague with which God had stricken him. 

 He was then conducted to church and all his ordinary 

 clothes were removed. He was thereupon vested in a 

 funeral pall, placed between two trestles before the altar, 

 and the Mass for the dead was celebrated over him. He 

 was then led to the Lazaretto ; a cop, clapper, stick, cowl, 

 and dress, &c. were given to him. He was then solemnly 



