NATURE IN THE EARLY MONTHS 65 
dwell upon here, as my object in the present note is to call 
attention to the fact that the case above described was not one 
of leprosy at all. The condition was really one of keratoma 
palmare et plantare, which is frequently hereditary. It has 
nothing whatever to do with leprosy (Elephantiasis of the 
Greeks and Lepra of the Arabs). Leprous infiltrations of the 
palms and soles are rare, and limited to these areas quite 
unheard of. I have dealt with Gilbert White’s case in the 
British Medical Journal for January 25, 1902. I have thought 
it well to bring the matter before the readers of Nature Notes 
in the hope that future editors of “ The Natural History of 
Selborne ” will point out in a foot-note that the case was not 
one of leprosy. 
I may perhaps be allowed to take this opportunity of saying 
a word or two on the subject of the doctrine of longing referred 
to by White in the above quotation. I can say positively that 
the miserable pauper’s condition was not due to his mother’s 
great propensity for that delicious mollusc, the oyster. White 
apparently was no believer in the tales of “ the good women, who 
love to account for every defect in children by the doctrine of 
longing.” He was too shrewd an observer, I should say, to 
accept such statements. As to the “ Elephant man ” mentioned 
in the January issue of Nature Notes (p. 6), it would require 
the imagination of a professional showman to see any re- 
semblance between the unfortunate sufferer and an elephant. 
Indeed, the patient got the name of the “ Elephant man ” at 
a penny show where he was exhibited. Whether the tale of his 
mother having been frightened by an elephant was an after- 
thought, or the result of the showman’s insidious suggestion, I 
cannot say. All statements of this kind are to be received with 
caution. Many of them break down under cross-examination. 
It is a well-known fact that some people go on repeating purely 
imaginary statements until they begin to believe in them 
implicitly. This is not the place to go further into the matter, 
but it is well to bear in mind that “a little knowledge is a 
dangerous thing.” George Pernet, 
English Editor of Lepra, the International Journal 
devoted to Leprosy. 
NATURE IN THE EARLY MONTHS. 
IERHAPS of all the twelve in the year the month 
just past, January, and the first weeks of the present 
February are the least interesting to the naturalist ; and 
indeed, never did Nature seem to slumber more heavily 
than when, on a blustering but sunny afternoon in the latter 
end of the first month of the year, two of us devotees set out to 
see if this was really so, and whether Nature was such a sluggard 
as at first sight appeared. 
