_The Leprosy._
A most severe disease, to which the bodies of the Jews were very
subject, was the Leprosy. Its signs recorded in the holy scriptures
are chiefly these. Pimples arose in the skin; the hair was turned
white; the plague (or sore) in sight was deeper than the skin, when
the disease had been of long standing; a white tumour appeared in the
skin, in which there was quick flesh; the foul eruptions gained ground
daily, and at length covered the whole surface of the body. And the
evil is said to infect, not only the human body, but also the cloaths
and garments, nay (what may seem strange) utensils made of skins or
furs, and even the very walls of the houses. Wherefore there are
precepts laid down for cleansing these also, as well as the lepers.
Medical authors are of different opinions concerning the contagion of
this disease. And whereas neither the Arabian nor Greek physicians,
who have treated largely of the leprosy, have given the least hint of
this extraordinary force of it, whereby it may infect cloaths and
walls of houses; the Rabbin doctors dispute, whether that which seized
the Jews, was not intirely different from the common leprosy; and they
all affirm, that _there never appeared in the World, a leprosy of
cloaths and houses, except only in Judea, and among the sole people of
Israel_.
For my part, I shall now freely propose, what I think most probable on
the subject. One kind of contagion is more subtile than another; for
there is a sort, which is taken into the body by the very breath; such
as I have elsewhere said to exist in the plague, small pox, and other
malignant fevers. But there is another sort, which infects by contact
alone; either internal, as the venom of the venereal disease; or
external, as that of the itch, which is conveyed into the body by
rubbing against cloaths, whether woollen or linnen. Wherefore the
leprosy, which is a species of the itch, may pass into a sound man in
this last manner; perhaps also by cohabitation; as Fracastorius has
observed, that _a consumption is contagious, and is contracted by
living with a phthisical person, by the gliding of the corrupted and
putrefied juices_ of the sick _into the lungs of the sound man_.[47]
And _Aretæus_ is of the same opinion with regard to the Elephantiasis,
a disease nearly allied to the Leprosy: for he gives this caution,
"That it is not less dangerous to converse and live with persons
affected with this distemper, than with those infected with the
plague; because the contagion is communicated by the inspired[48]
air."
[47] _De morbis contagiosis. Lib. ii. Cap. ix._
[48] _De causis diuturnorum morborum, et de curationibus
eorundem, Lib. ii. Cap. xiii._
But here occurs a considerable difficulty. For Moses says, "If in the
leprosy there be observed a white tumour in the skin, and it have
turned the hair white in it, and there be quick flesh within the
tumour; it is an old leprosy in the skin of his flesh. But if the
leprosy spread broad in the skin, and cover the whole skin of the
diseased from his head even to his feet, the person shall be
pronounced[49] clean." But the difficulty contained in this passage
will vanish, if we suppose, as it manifestly appears to me, that it
points out two different species of the disease; the one in which the
eroded skin was ulcerated, so that the quick flesh appeared
underneath; the other, which spread on the surface of the skin only in
the form of rough scales. And from this difference it happened, that
the former species was, and the latter was not, contagious. For these
scales, being dry and light like bran, do not penetrate into the skin;
whereas the purulent matter issuing from the ulcers infects the
surface of the body. But concerning the differences of cuticular
diseases, I heartily recommend to the reader's perusal, what Johannes
Manardus, equally valuable for his medical knowledge and the purity of
his Latin, has written upon the subject.[50]
[49] _Levit. Chap. xiii. v. 10 &c._
[50] _Epist. Medicinal. Lib. vii. Epist. ii._
There is no time, in which this disease was not known; but it was
always more severe in Syria and Egypt, as they are hotter countries,
than in Greece and other parts of Europe; and it is even at this day
frequent in those regions. For I have been assured by travellers, that
there are two hospitals for the leprous alone in Damascus. And there
is a fountain at Edessa, in which great numbers of people affected
with this cuticular foulness wash daily, as was the ancient custom.
Moreover we read the principal signs, which occur in the description
of the Mosaic leprosy, excepting only the infection of the cloaths and
houses (of which by and by) recorded by the Greek Physicians.
Hippocrates himself calls the [Greek: leukê] or white leprosy [Greek:
Phoinikiê nousos] the Phoenician disease.[51] For that the word
[Greek: phthinikê] ought to be read [Greek: Phoinikiê], appears
manifestly from Galen in his _Explicatio linguarum Hippocratis_; where
he says that [Greek: phoinikê nousos] is a disease which is _frequent
in Phoenicia and other eastern regions_.[52] In the foregoing chapter I
said that the Leprosy (Leuce) and the Elephantiasis, were diseases of
great affinity:[53] in confirmation of which notion the same Galen
observes, that the one sometimes changes into the other.[54] Now these
two distempers are no where better described than by Celsus, who lived
about the time of Augustus Cæsar, and having collected the works of
the principal Greek writers in physic and surgery, digested them into
order, and turned them into elegant Latin with great judgment. Thus
he describes the leprous diseases. _Three are three species of the_
Vitiligo. _It is named_ [Greek: alphos], _when it is of a white
colour, with some degree of roughness, and is not continuous, but
appears as if some little drops were dispersed here and there;
sometimes it spreads wider, but with certain intermissions or
discontinuities. The_ [Greek: melas] _differs from this in colour,
because it is black, and like a shadow, but in other circumstances
they agree. The_ [Greek: leukê] _has some similitude with the_ [Greek:
alphos], _but it has more of the white, and runs in deeper: and in it
the hairs are white, and like down. All these spread themselves, but
in some persons quicker, in others slower. The_ Alphos _and_ Melas
_come on, and go off some people at different times; but the_ Leuce
_does not easily quit the patient, whom it has seized.[55] But in the
Elephantiasis_, says the same author, _the whole body is so affected,
that the very bones may be said to be injured. The surface of the body
has a number of spots and tumors on it; and their redness is by
degrees changed into a dusky or blackish colour. The surface of the
skin is unequally thick and thin, hard and soft; and is scaley and
rough: the body is emaciated; the mouth, legs and feet swell. When the
disease is inveterate, the nails on the fingers and toes are hidden by
the swelling._[56] And the accounts left us by the Arabian physicians,
agree with these descriptions. Avicenna, the chief of them, says that
_the Leprosy is a sort of universal cancer of the whole body_.[57]
Wherefore it plainly appears from all that has been said, that the
Syrian Leprosy did not differ in nature, but in degree only, from the
Grecian, which was there called [Greek: leukê]; and that this same
disease had an affinity with the Elephantiasis, sometimes among the
Greeks, but very much among the Arabs. For the climate and manner of
living, very much aggravates all cuticular diseases.
[51] _Prorrhetic. Lib. ii. sub finem._
[52] [Greek: Hê kata Phoinikên, ki kata ta alla anatolika
merê pleonazousa.]
[53] _Pag. 15._
[54] _De simpl. medicam. facult. Lib. xi._
[55] _De medicina, Lib. v. Cap. xxviii. §. 19._
[56] _Lib. iii. Cap. xxv._
[57] _Canon, Lib. iv. Fen. 3. Tract. 3. Cap. i._
Now with regard to the infection of the cloaths, it has been found by
most certain experiments, not only in the plague, and some other
malignant eruptive fevers, as the small pox and measles, but even in
the common itch; that the infection, once received into all sorts of
furs or skins, woollen, linnen, and silk, remains a long time in them,
and thence passes into human bodies. Wherefore it is easy to conceive,
that the leprous miasmata might pass from such materials into the
bodies of those, who either wore or handled them, and, like seeds
sown, produce the disease peculiar to them. For it is well known,
that the surface of the body, let it appear ever so soft and smooth,
is not only full of pores, but also of little furrows, and therefore
is a proper nest for receiving and cherishing the minute, but very
active, particles exhaling from infected bodies. But I have treated
this subject in a more extensive manner in my _Discourse on the
Plague_.[58] And these seeds of contagion are soon mixed with an acrid
and salt humor, derived from the blood; which as it naturally ought,
partly to have turned into nutriment, and partly to have perspired
through the skin, it now lodges, and corrodes the little scales of the
cuticle; and these becoming dry and white, sometimes even as white as
snow, are separated from the skin, and fall off like bran. Now, altho'
this disease is very uncommon in our colder climate; yet I have seen
one remarkable case of it, in a countryman, whose whole body was so
miserably seized by it, that his skin was shining as if covered with
snow: and as the furfuraceous scales were daily rubbed off, the flesh
appeared quick or raw underneath. This wretch had constantly lived in
a swampy place, and was obliged to support himself with bad diet and
foul water.
[58] _Chap. i._
But it is much more difficult to account for the infection of the
houses. For it seems hardly possible in nature, that the leprous spots
should grow and spread on dry walls, made of solid materials. But upon
a serious consideration of the different substances employed in
building the walls of houses, such as stones, lime, bituminous earth,
hair of animals, and other such things mix'd together; I thought it
probable, that they may by a kind of fermentation, produce those
_hollow greenish or reddish strokes in sight lower than the wall_ (or
within the surface)[59] which, as they in some measure resembled the
leprous scabs on the human body, were named the _Leprosy in a house_.
For bodies of different natures, very easily effervesce upon being
blended together. Wherefore we may reasonably suppose that this
moisture or mouldiness, gradually coming forth and spreading on the
walls, might prove very prejudicial to the inhabitants, by its
stinking and unwholesome smell, without having recourse to any
contagious quality in it. And somewhat analogous to this is pretty
frequently observable in our own houses; where, when the walls are
plaistered with bad mortar, the calcarious and nitrose salts sweat out
upon their surface, of a colour almost as white as snow. The power of
inspecting their houses was invested in the priests; who, when they
observed this foulness, gave orders first to have the walls of the
house scraped all around; and afterwards, if it continued to break
out, to pull down the house, and carry the materials out of the city
into an unclean place.
[59] _Levit. Chap. xiv. v. 37._
I am well aware, that all this is related, as if God himself had
struck the house with this plague. But it is well known, that that way
of speaking is not uncommon in the jewish history; as in unexpected
evils and dreadful calamities, which are sometimes said to be done by
the hand of God, tho' they may be produced by natural causes. Nor can
I be easily induced to believe, with some divines, that God, who
commanded his people to be always free from every sort of
uncleanness, would vouchsafe to work a miracle, in order to inflict
this most filthy punishment on any person. Thus much is indubitable,
that the precepts of the mosaic law were constituted particularly, to
avert the people from idolatry and false religion, and at the same
time to keep them clear of all uncleanness.[60] To this end conspired
the prohibition of eating blood, carrion, or animals that died
spontaneously, swines flesh, and that of several other creatures.[61]
For all these meats yield a gross nutriment, which is improper and
prejudicial in diseases of the skin.
[60] _Mos. Maimonid. More Navochim, Part. iii. Cap. xxxiii.
et xlviii._
[61] _Levit. Chap. xi. et xvii._
But in order to close these theological researches with somewhat
medical, I am convinced from experience, that there is not a better
medicine known against this filthy disease, than the _tincture of
Cantharides_ of the _London Dispensatory_. Its remarkable virtue in
this case, is owing to the diuretic quality of these flies. For there
is a great harmony between the kidneys and glands of the skin, so that
the humors brought on the latter, easily find a way thro' the former,
and are carried off by urine: and on the other hand, when the kidneys
have failed in the performance of their functions, an urinous humor
sometimes perspires thro' the cuticular pores. But such cathartics are
to be interposed at proper intervals, as are most proper for
evacuating thick and acrid humors.