LEPROSY 187 



day, other diseases were, no doubt, frequently con- 

 founded with it. The disease appears to have existed 

 in Egypt, in India, and probably in other parts of 

 Asia long before it was introduced to the countries 

 of Europe, where it gained its widest prevalence be- 

 tween the sixth and twelfth centuries of our era. Its 

 decline in Europe has, to a great extent, been pro- 

 gressive since the fifteenth century. 



In Great Britain, the disease was prevalent during 

 the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries, and 

 numerous " leper houses " existed. The disease was 

 less common during the following centuries, and be- 

 came practically extinct during the latter part of the 

 eighteenth century, its final seat having been in the 

 Shetland Islands. In 1742 a public thanksgiving was 

 ordered for the permanent disappearance of leprosy 

 from the Shetland Islands. The last leper of the 

 Shetland Islands, it is stated, died in the Edinburgh 

 Infirmary in 1798 (Morrow). In southern Europe 

 the disease began to decline towards the close of the 

 seventeenth century. 



At the present day India and China are the chief 

 centres of leprous infection. The census of India for 

 1891 gives the total number of lepers in that country 

 as 114,239. The disease also prevails in Cochin 

 China, in the Malay Peninsula, in the Dutch East 

 Indies, in the Philippine Islands, and in Japan. In 



