512 
LEPROSY. 
public adls, according to Muratori, in the fixth century; 
and Gregory of Tours fpeaks of a place, where thefe un¬ 
fortunate perfons were accuttomed to walb theml'elves, as 
well as of an hofpital appropriated for them. Gregory 
the Great, in the fame century, likewife alludes to the 
fubjebt, and particularly mentions one leper, quem denfs 
vulneribits morbus elephantinus defadaverat. In the following 
century, Rhotaris king of the Lombards publilhed an 
edift againff lepers, by which they were confidered as 
dead in the law, and enjoined not to come near to found 
perfons, but to apprife them of their approach, by mak¬ 
ing a noifs with a wooden clapper. There was a river 
near Afii in Lombardy, famous in thofe times for the 
cure of leprofy; whence, in the eighth century, the Lom¬ 
bards were confidered as a filthy leprous people ; and 
pope Sylvefter, upon the plea of leprofy, diffuaded the 
king of France from marrying a Lombard princefs. So 
early as the eighth century, St. Othmar in Germany, and 
St. Nicholas de Corbie in France, inftituted leprous houfes, 
which had been already numeroufly effablilhed in Italy. 
King Pepin in 757, »aod Charles the Great in 789, iffued 
ordinances, bv which the marriages of lepers were diffolv- 
ed, and their aflociation with the healthy prohibited. In 
the life of St. Athanafius, in the ninth century, lepers are 
alfo mentioned ; and indeed, in general, the Adts of the 
Saints, compiled by the Bollandilts, are replete with ex¬ 
amples of the malady, throughout Europe, in the middle 
ages; even in the life of St. Antoninus, fo early as the 
fourth century, a cafe of leprofy, horrendiffima elephantine 
lepra, is mentioned. Thefe fails imply the general pre¬ 
valence of leprofy in Europe, long antecedent to the Cru- 
fades. It is clear, however, that many fevere difeafes af¬ 
flicted Europe to a much greater extent, and with aug¬ 
mented virulence, about the period when thofe fanatical 
expeditions were executed, or rather from the tenth to 
the fixteenth centuries, than before; and, among the reft, 
the leprofy appears to have been every-where prevalent. 
Every country abounded with its hofpitals, eltablifhed for 
the exclufive relief of lepers, although the number of 
thefe inltitutions has been probably exaggerated. Several 
authors have, by an error in tranflation, quoted Matthew 
Paris for an affertion, that nineteen thoufand lazarettos ex- 
iffed in Chrifiendom ; but that author only Hates, that 
the hofpitalers were, at that period, poffeffed of 19,000 
manors: “ Habent hofpitalarii novetn decern millia mane- 
riorum in Chriffianitate.” It is affirmed, however, that 
Louis VIII. king of France, made bequefls, in the year 
1227, to two thoufand leproferies within his own kingdom. 
In this country, there were a great number of thefe 
effablilhments. It is affirmed, that the city of Nor¬ 
wich alone contained five. The molt extendve inftitu- 
tion of this kind was in Leicefierffiire, at a place thence 
railed Burton-Lazars; it was founded in the reign of king 
Stephen, and dedicated to the Virgin and St. Lazarus, and 
became poffeffed of immenfe riches ; fo that all the inferior 
■lazar-houfes in England were in fome meafure fubjebt to 
the mailer of it, as he hinrfelf was to the mailer of the La¬ 
zars at Jerufalem. (See Nichols’s Hill, of Leicefterfhire.) 
In London there were fix, according to Becket; the largelt 
of which was that of St. Giles, without Temple Bar. 
In all the towns where lazarettos were eltablifhed, me¬ 
dical officers were appointed by the police, to examine all 
perfons, who were fuppofed to be affebted with leprofy, 
previous to their feclufion in thofe receptacles ; indeed, 
where no fuch eftablilhments exifted, huts were erebted a 
little way out of the towns (where alfo the hofpitals were 
generally placed) for each individual leper. The rules 
and edifts, with regard to the conduct of the lepers, were, 
as far as the circumitances admitted of it, nearly copied 
from the Mofaic laws. It is obvious, however, from the 
writings of thofe phyficians who held the office of exami¬ 
ners alter the revival of learning, and indeed it was avowed 
by them, that the tubercular leprofy, or elephantiafis, was 
the difeafe, to the detection of which their inquiries were 
jpaiticularly directed. Gregory II or It, who was one of the 
appointed examiners at Ulm in Bavaria, at the end of the 
fixteenth century, has left us the particulars of the exami¬ 
nation ufually praCtifed by himfelf and his colleagues, 
when fummoned by the magiflrates for that purpofe. Af¬ 
ter the preliminary queliions relative to the age and fa¬ 
mily of the perfon brought before them, thev examined 
him refpe&ing the exifience of the difeafe in’liis parents 
and progenitors; his habits of life and his affociates, with 
a view to the probability of contagion ; his peculiar tem¬ 
perament, and previous Hate of health, and particularly as 
to the fuppreffion of cuftomary evacuations ; and then as 
to the climate, foil, habitation, and diet, to which he had 
previouily been accultomed. They then quellioned him 
as the Hate of all the functions, mental and corporeal; 
and laltly, denudatis partibus omnibus, they examined the 
whole body, with a view to afeertain the prefence or ab- 
fence of the following external fymptoms : Fill! they in- 
fpebled the head, to fee whether the hair was beginning 
to fall off; whether that of the beard was becoming fofter 
and thinner, and that of the eye-brows and eye-laffies 
wasdifappearing; and whether, when the hairs were pulled 
up by the roots, a part of the Ikin was brought away with 
them; whether the eyes were round and grim, the ears 
acuminated, the lips thick, the nofe tumefied externally, 
the nofinis internally Huffed and ulcerated, the face un¬ 
equally fwelled with tubercles, and of a livid red hue ? 
Whether the veins under the tongue were enlarged with 
tubercles, as if varicofe ? Whether the Ikin was un£tuous, 
fo that water ran off of it, or there were under it tuber¬ 
cles nearly without fenfibility, efpecially behind the ears, 
and on the extremities? Whether the fkin was rough, 
like that of an unfeathered goofe, or affefied with horrid 
fiiliires, and rugae, refembling the hide of an elephant, or 
covered with warts, like the grandines of fwine, or affected 
with morpkaa, impetigo, or a dry and incurable fcabies? 
Whether there were any nodes about the joints ? Whe¬ 
ther the mulcles of the extremities, efpecially about the 
thumbs, were emaciated ? Whether the nails were in- 
curvated ? Whether the Ikin was fenfibleto the punbture 
of the furgeon’s needle? Whether there were offenfive 
ulcers, with a bad habit of body, efpecially ulcerations 
and fiffures in the fingers and toes ? and whether the voice 
was hoarfe and obtule? They then drew fome blood, for 
the purpofe of examining it. “Thefe fymptoms being 
prefent,” fays the author, “ we deem the dileafe elephan¬ 
tiafis, and decree that the patient, inafmuch as he is affebt- 
ed with an incurable and contagious leprofy, is to be fe- 
parated from all communion with the healthy.” Obf. 
Med. lib. vii. 
It is obvious, however, from the acknowledgment of 
Horff himfelf, as well as from the concurring obferva- 
tions of feveral phyficians before his time, that the ele¬ 
phantiafis was by no means the only dileafe of the kind 
admitted into the lazarettos. He goes on to obferve, that, 
where the tubercles of the face, the thick lips, acuminated 
ears, flattened nofe, round eyes, (the effential fymptoms 
of elephantiafis,) are abfent; yet, where the patients are 
affected only with a dry and foul fcabies, with pufiular 
eruptions, fiffures, and branny exfoliations, which conffi- 
tute the pfora of the Greeks; or even with great itching, 
emaciation, ulceration, and exfoliations of thicker feales, 
affebling alfo the head and face, which are the lepra of the 
Greeks ; neverthelefs they are fent to the lazarettos, if 
they are poor, for the means of fubfiffence. “ Hence it 
happens,” he adds, “ that here, and elfewhere, very few in- 
ffances of real elephantiafis are found in the lazarettos, 
whilff many are there, affebted only with an obffinate pfora 
or lepra Gnecorum .” We have alfo the direct teffimony 
of an able obferver, Van Foreeff, (better known by his La¬ 
tin appellation, Foreltus,) who practifed at Alcmaer and 
Delft, in the middle of the fixteenth century, and who 
has alfo left an account of the mode of examination of 
lepers, adopted by himfelf, that a very fmall proportion of 
the perfons, who wandered about the Low Countries as 
lepers and beggars, were true lepers; but were merely af¬ 
fected 
