244 LEPROSY. 



large provision made for objects labouring under 

 this calamity. There was an hospital for female 

 lepers in the diocese of Lincoln, a noble one near 

 Durham, three in London and Southwark, and 

 perhaps many more in or near our great towns and 

 cities. Moreover, some crowned heads, and other 

 wealthy and charitable personages, bequeathed 

 large legacies to such poor people as languished 

 under this hopeless infirmity. 



It must, therefore, in these days, be, to a 

 humane and thinking person, a matter of equal 

 wonder and satisfaction, when he contemplates 

 how nearly this pest is eradicated, and observes 

 that a leper is now a rare sight. He will, 

 moreover, when engaged in such a train of 

 thought, naturally inquire for the reason. This 

 happy change, perhaps, may have originated and 

 been continued from the much smaller quantity 

 of salted meat and fish now eaten in these 

 kingdoms from the use of linen next the skin 

 from the plenty of better bread and from 

 the profusion of fruits, roots, legumes, and greens, 

 so common in every family. Three or four 

 centuries ago, before there were any enclosures, 

 sown-grasses, field-turnips, field-carrots, or hay, 

 all the cattle that had grown fat in summer, 

 and were not killed for winter use, were turned 

 out soon after Michaelmas to shift as they could 

 through the dead months ; so that no fresh meat 

 could be had in winter or spring. Hence the 

 marvellous account of the vast stores of salted 

 flesh found in the larder of the eldest Spencer *, 

 in the days of Edward the Second, even so late 

 in the spring as the 3d of May. It was from 



1 Viz. six hundred bacons, eighty carcasses of beef, and 

 six hundred muttons. 



