798 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



based mainly upon sensational reports which have appeared from time 

 to time in the newspapers. 



I will not enter upon a detailed description of this dread malady. 

 It is one which profoundly affects the constitution of its victim, and 

 usually terminates fatally in from five to fifteen years. It can not be 

 said to be an absolutely incurable disease, although the most that 

 medical skill has succeeded in accomplishing, save in a few exceptional 

 instances, has been to cause a temporary disappearance of the symp- 

 toms at the outset, or to mitigate the suffering of the patient in the 

 later stages. In some cases, the disease appears in the form of dull, 

 brownish spots upon the skin, with loss of its natural sensibility. 

 This is the macular form of leprosy. In other cases the disease is 

 characterized by the formation of dark, reddish-brown lumps upon the 

 face and other parts of the body, which give the leper a peculiarly 

 unsightly expression. This constitutes the more severe or tubercular 

 form of the disease. In all cases the nerve-trunks are more or less 

 affected, and the sense of touch in the extremities is greatly impaired. 

 The hands shrivel, the fingers become bent like claws, ulceration takes 

 place in some cases, and the joints drop off one by one. The leper 

 now becomes an utterly helpless and pitiable object. 



Such is leprosy as met with at the present day, and at once the 

 interesting question arises, "Is this the leprosy of olden time — the 

 tsaraath of the Old Testament ? " Without doubt the disease of which 

 I have been speaking existed among the Egyptians and the Israelites 

 in Moses's day, and from Egypt gradually made its way along the 

 coasts of the Mediterranean to Greece and later to Italy. There is 

 doubt, however, as to whether Moses was perfectly familiar with the 

 leprosy which we now recognize, and distinguished it from other affec- 

 tions of a severe and contagious character. Certainly there are no 

 scriptural references to any disease which is unmistakably the leprosy 

 of the present day. We read that when Moses put his hand into his 

 bosom and took it out again at the command of the Lord, " Behold his 

 hand was leprous as snow." When the anger of the Lord was 

 kindled against the sister of Moses, " Behold, Miriam became leprous, 

 white as snow." Again, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, was told by 

 the prophet : " The leprosy, therefore, of Naaman shall cleave unto thee 

 and unto thy seed forever. And he went out from his presence a 

 leper as white as snow." Now, there are certain affections of the 

 skin, met with at the present day, to which the expression " white as 

 snow " would be applicable, but leprosy is not one of them. Indeed, 

 in this disease, the skin usually becomes dark rather than light in color, 

 and in none of the few score of cases which I have had the oppor- 

 tunity of observing would the phrase " white as snow " be other than 

 highly inappropriate. 



The somewhat detailed description of leprosy which is found in the 

 -thirteenth chapter of Leviticus is almost unintelligible in the light of 



