RARE OCCURRENCE OF LEPROSY. 199 
wlio, 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 inactivit}^ 
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 lore 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 which were 
lepers ; his father in particular lived to be far advanced in years. 
In all ages the leprosy has made dreadful havoc among man- 
kind. 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.* 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 all Europe 
over ; and our forefathers were by no means exempt, as appears 
by the large provision m.ade 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 con- 
templates how nearly this pest is eradicated, and observes that a 
leper now is a rare sight. He will, moreover, when engaged in 
such a train of thought, naturally enquire for the reason. This 
happy change perhaps may have originated and been continued 
* See Leviticus, chap, xiii. and xiv. 
