■896 Dr. Ainslte's Obsercatiom on the Lepa Arabum. 



Dr. Towne* in liis treatise on the disorders of the West-Indies, frankly 

 acknowledges that he had never performed a perfect cure of what he called 

 " the joint evil." 



I have already observed how certainly the Kustam of the Tamools has 

 been ascertained to be hereditary ; a fact which must tend most effectually 

 to damp our hopes, when called upon to treat any case of it springing from 

 that source. When this leprosy descends from parent to child, it appears 

 earHer in life than in other attacks ; when the malady is either acquired, or 

 perhaps when the taint has been less powerful, it does not shew itself till 

 a much later period; audit is in those last-mentioned instances that our 

 chance of affording relief is the best, as the habit must be then stronger, 

 and the patient more manageable. 



In this, as in all other hereditary complaints, much good may be done by 

 avoiding what has been termed exciting causes ; a caution which cannot 

 be too forcibly inculcated, to those who may have reason to dread a visit 

 from this distemper. The ancient Greek physicians were in the habit of 

 ordering bleeding at the beginning of this disease, and giving freely as a 

 drink a decoction of the Hiera 2»cra. Aretteus as well as Galen t recom- 

 mended viper's flesh, with the exception of the head and tail of the animal; 

 the latter prescribed, at the same time, emetics of the white hellebore, and 

 purgatives of the black ; sea bathing, the tepid bath, and a generous use 

 of rich wine, he considered as powerful assistants ; and advised that the 

 diet should be of easy concoction, and such as produced good juices : he 

 moreover enjoined exercise, and, unlike the medical men of the present day, 

 allowed his patients to eat fish and pork. 



The modern Arabian physicians seem to trust chiefly to mercury for the 

 cure of the Juzdm, which the reader may assure himself of by looking into 

 a work entitled Almaglmi Ji shereh al mujiz, written by Sedid Addin 

 Gazerang ; also, Shet-eh dshdb va ildmat (a celebrated treatise on the causes, 

 signs, and remedies of diseases) of Nejb Addin Modin al Samarcandi, by 

 Nafis ben Aviz, dedicated to Sultan Ulugh Beg Guugan. 



Dr. Hillary was of opinion, that all preparations of mercury except the 

 niercurius cald7iatus,% given in small doses as an alterative, with antimonials, 



« See his work, page 191. See also Hoffmann, part v. cap. v. 

 \ Vide Op. Galen, class vii. page 107, F. 

 ^ See his Diseases of Barbadoes. 



I 



