290 Dr. Ai\si.iKS Ohservalioiis on the Lepra Arabum. 



unnatuial odour ; the bowels irregular ; the hairs of the head gradually 

 fall off ; the parts of generation slnink; the nails break and waste away ; 

 the fingers and toes seem as it were withered, the former bending inwards 

 as if crampt, and the heels and soles of the feet are disfigured by deep 

 fissures. The disease gradually going on, and the humours of the body 

 becoming, from the impeded transpiration and general stagnation, daily 

 more corrupt ; the voice, which was but six months before only unpleasant, 

 owing perhaps to tubercles on the uvula and palate, has now a most dis- 

 cordant, nasal, and unnatural sound ; the alw nasi are swelled and scabrous, 

 and the bones themselves of that organ are in certain cases flattened, and 

 twisted in some degree to one side, giving to the countenance a distorted 

 look. A most ofltnsive ichor now distils from the nose ; neither rest nor 

 food tend to refreshen or invigorate, and all carnal appetite, in place of 

 being increased, as some authors* imagined, entirely dies away. 



In tliis condition, with many of the grand functions which support life 

 deranged, it may easily be imagined that existence must be a state of 

 misery ; and tiie conviction tliat there is no hope whatever of recovery, 

 makes the wretched leper still more an object of pity. 



In the advanced state to which I have brought, in description, the Lepra 

 Arabum, as it appears in India, the malady will sometimes continue for 

 several years, apparently having come to an ultimate stand; but, alas! 

 with declining years is sure to come progressive misery : every symptom is 

 finally rendered worse; the already ugly become loathsome; on the most 

 trifling motion the respiration is hurried, and the dyspepsia is most tor- 

 menting, owing in all probability to the perspiration being obstructed over 

 so great a part of the surface of the body, and the certain accumulation 

 of morbific humours : when any exertion is used sufficient to excite diapho- 

 resis, the only parts that perspire are the neck and a little round the waist ; 

 the face, legs, arms, and thighs are tiiereby merely rendered clammy, and 

 the tubercles on them turgid. At this time a feverish attack comes on 

 regularly every evening, which may be discovered by the increased heat 

 of the axilla, and the eyes assume that dim but brassy appearance, so 

 properly noticed by Aretaus ;t pulsation is no longer felt any where, but 



* See Sonnini's Travels through Egypt, page 559. See also Aretaeus, by Moffat, page 278 ; 

 also Hillary's Diseases of Barbadoes, page 322 — 326. 

 t See Aretseus, page 283. 



