ON LEPROSY, ETC. : BY JOSEPH LAUTERKR, M.D. 15 



the same steam-kettle where the other hospital linen had to be 

 cleansed. 



As 1 am not speaking here from a medical point of view, I 

 shall describe the disease just as it presented itself to me at the 

 first glance, comparing it with the notes given by Moses in 

 thirteenth chapter of Leviticus. The most striking appearance 

 is offered to the eye by those northern leprosy patients, where 

 the disease has spread over a large area of the skin, and where 

 this latter is covered by glossy-white scales on an elevated base 

 with a deep central depression. Well-defined patches of scales 

 and white or hoary hairs form the starting-points of this 

 leprous skin disease, which soon runs all over the body. Moses 

 mentions this form of leprosy under the name of Btnu Idena, 

 or White Leprosy : " And the priest shall look on the plague in 

 the skin of the tiesh : and when the hair in the plague is turned 

 white, and thf plague in sight be deeper than the skin of his 

 flesh, it is a plague of leprosy : and the priest shall look on him, 

 and pronounce him unclean." [Verse 8.] 



Not so easily recognised and not so well pronounced is that 

 form of northern leprosy where the scales are of a dusky or 

 livid hue, without a central depression, and where they are 

 confined to scattered or confluent patches, increasing and 

 spreading over the body. The Hebrews named this kind of 

 leprosy " berat kecha" (black spot) and made the diagnosis by 

 the quickness of spreading : " And if the priest see that, behold, 

 the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce 

 him unclean : it is a leprosy." [Verse 8.] 



A third form of leprosy often seen in Norway is character- 

 ised by dull-white scales surrounded by a dry-red border. This 

 seems to be the Bohek of Moses, although he did not consider it 

 a contagious disease. The small tubercles under the surface 

 of the skin have in my time been the means of establishing a 

 diagnosis. Some cases of leprosy where anesthesia had set in 

 and the sense of feeling was lost, complete the series of cases 

 seen by me in Norway. The poorer people sutiering from the 

 disease used to doctor themselves. They made infusions of 

 Ledum palustrt, a plant growmg in marshes and swamps all over 

 Northern Europe, or they used the bark of the Elm Tree 



