THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 185 
or that house-swallows should leave the districts of Asia to 
enjoy in March the transient summer of a couple of days, 
LETTER XXXIII. 
SELBORNE, Jan. 8th, 1778. 
There was in this village several years ago a miserable 
pauper, who 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 erup- 
tion 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. 
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. Nor was the rancor 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 made for objects laboring 
under this calamity. There was an hospital for female lepers 
in the diocese of Lincoln; a noble one near Durham; three in 
1 See Lev. xiii. and xiv. 
