LEPROSY. 



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. We 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 l . Nor was the rancour of this foul disorder 

 much abated in the last period of their common- 

 wealth, as may be seen in many passages of the 

 New Testament. 



Some centuries ago, this horrible distemper 

 prevailed all over Europe ; and our forefathers 

 were by no means exempt, as appears by the 



1 See Leviticus, chap. xiii. and xiv. 

 R2 



