LXXIX.] 



OF SELBORNE. 



213 



LETTER LXXIX. 



TO THE HONOURABLE DAINES BARRINGTON. 



THERE was in this village several years ago a miserable pauper 

 who, from his birth, was afflicted with a leprosy, as far as we are* 

 aware, of a singular kind ; since it affected only the palms of 

 his hands and the soles of his feet. This scaly eruption usually 

 broke out twice in the year, at the spring and fall ; and, by 

 peeling away, left the skin so thin and tender that neither his 

 hands nor feet were able to perform their functions ; so that the 

 poor object was half his time on crutches, incapable of employ, 

 and languishing in a tiresome state of indolence and inactivity. 

 His habit was lean, lank, and cadaverous. In this sad plight 

 he dragged on a miserable existence, a burden to himself and 

 his parish, which was obliged to support him till he was relieved 

 by death at more than thirty years of age. 



The good women, who love to account for every defect in 

 children by the doctrine of longing, said that his mother felt a 

 violent propensity for oysters, which she was unable to gratify ; 

 and that the black rough scurf on his hands and feet were the 

 shells of that fish. I knew his parents, neither of whom were 

 lepers ; his father in particular lived to be far advanced in 

 years. 



In all ages, the leprosy has made dreadful havoc among 

 mankind. The Israelites seem to have been greatly afflicted with 

 it from the most remote times ; as appears from the peculiar 

 and repeated injunctions given them in the Levitical law. 1 

 Nor was the rancour of this foul disorder much abated in the 

 last period of their commonwealth, as may be seen in many 

 passages of the New Testament. 



Some centuries ago this horrible distemper prevailed nil 

 Europe over; and our forefathers were by no means exempt, 

 as appears by the large provisions made for objects labouring 

 1 See Leviticus xiii. and xiv. 



