Charles Léon Souvay

“ When the Hebrews reached the desert of Sin, tired by their long march, fearful at the thought of the coming scarcity of food, and perhaps weakened already by privations, they began to regret the abundance of the days of their sojourn in Egypt, and murmured against Moses and Aaron. ”

“ Those indeed were hard times for Israel. Nehemias—if, to unravel the intricate chronology of the Books of Esdras, we admit that Nehemias preceded Esdras to Jerusalem—spared no efforts to re-establish the Temple worship; but the resources of the sanctuary were scarce, and after his return to Persia, the priests fled, every man to his own country to find a living; the sacrifices, not provided for, were abandoned, and the altar alone remained, a solitary witness to the misery of the times (II Esd., xiii, 10) . ”

“ Altar of Holocaust.—Modern critics affirm that there existed in Israel different legitimate places of worship before the time of Josias, an assertion however, which is not to be examined here as only regulations concerning the altar come under consideration at present. The earliest ordinance on the subject is found in Ex., xx, 24–26 as follows: "You shall make an altar of earth unto me, and you shall offer upon it your holocausts and peace offerings, your sheep and oxen, in every place where the memory of my name shall be: I will come to thee, and will bless thee. ”

“ So far leprosy has baffled all the efforts of medical science: almost every conceivable method of treatment has been attempted, yet with no appreciable success. Occasionally the treatment has been followed by such long periods of remission of the disease (fifteen or twenty years) as might lead one to believe the cure altogether complete; still, specialists continue to hold that in such instances the virulence of the bacillus is, through causes unknown, merely suspended, and may break forth again. ”

“ Leprosy.—Leprosy proper, or lepra tuberculosa, in contradistinction to other skin diseases commonly designated by the Greek word λέπρα (psoriasis, etc.) , is a chronic infectious disease caused by the bacillus lepræ, characterized by the formation of growths in the skin, mucous membranes, peripheral nerves, bones, and internal viscera, producing various deformities and mutilations of the human body, and usually terminating in death. ”

“ Then the skin shrinks, the hair, teeth, and nails fall, and the lopping-off process of necrosis may extend to the loss of the entire hand or foot. The mixed variety of leprosy is the combination and complete development of the two types just described. In all cases a peculiar offensive smell, recalling that of the dissecting-room mixed with the odour of goose feathers—the authors of the Middle Ages compared it to that of the male-goat—is emitted by the leper, and renders him an object of repulsion to all who come near him. ”

“ The appearance of "the living flesh" in connexion with whitish blotches was deemed an evident sign of the infection (10) . White formations covering the whole body are no sign of leprosy unless "live flesh*' (ulceration) accompany them; in the latter case, the patient was isolated as suspect, and if the sores, which might be only temporary pustules, should heal up, he had to appear again before the priest, who would then declare him clean (12-17) . ”

“ Scarcely different from the preceding in the period of invasion is the course of anæsthetic leprosy, one of the characteristic symptoms of which is the anæsthesia of the little finger, which may occur even before any lesions appear. The ulcer, at first usually localized on one finger, attacks one by one the other fingers, then the other hand; in some cases the feet are affected at the same time, in others their ulceration follows that of the hands. ”

“ The altar served not only for the holocausts, but also for all the other sacrifices in which a part of the victim was burnt. Fire was unceasingly kept in the hearth for the sacrifices. When this altar was built up, before serving for Divine worship, it was solemnly consecrated by an unction with holy oil and by daily anointings and aspersions with the blood of the sin-offerings for seven days. For twelve days this was followed by daily sacrifices offered by the princes of each tribe, thenceforth all bloody sacrifices were offered on this altar. ”

“ Aaron, first High Priest of the Old Law, is most naturally a figure of Jesus Christ, first and sole Sovereign Priest of the New Dispensation. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews was the first to set off the features of this parallel, indicating especially two points of comparison. First, the calling of both High Priests: "Neither doth any man take the honour to himself, but he that is called by God as Aaron was. ”

“ According to the patriarchal customs, the first born son in every family used to perform the functions connected with God's worship. It might have been expected, consequently, that Ruben's family would be chosen by God for the ministry of the new altar. According to the biblical narrative, it was Aaron, however, who was the object of Yahweh's choice. To what jealousies this gave rise later, has been indicated above. The office of the Aaronites was at first merely to take care of the lamp that should ever burn before the veil of the tabernacle (Ex., xxvii, 21) . ”

“ In the tubercular type, nodosities of leprous tissue, which may reach the size of a walnut, are formed out of the blotches. They may occur on any part of the body, but usually affect the face (forehead, eyelids, nose, lips, chin, cheeks, and ears) , thickening all the features and giving them a leonine appearance (leontiasis, satyriasis) . Tubercular leprosy develops rapidly, and, when attacking the extremities, its destructive process has the same effect of ulceration, mutilation, and deformity as has been mentioned above. ”

“ In the first month of the thirty-ninth year after the Exodus, the Hebrews camped at Cades, where Mary, Aaron's sister, died and was buried. There the people were in want of water and soon murmured against Moses and Aaron. Then God said to Moses: "Take the rod, and assemble the people together thou and Aaron thy brother, and speak to the rock before them, and it shall yield waters" (Num., xx, 8) . Moses obeyed and struck the rock twice with the rod, so that there came forth water in great abundance. We learn from Ps. ”

“ Aaron, on the contrary, occupies a most prominent place; there we learn, indeed, with Aaron's pedigree and age, almost all the above-narrated particulars, all honourable for Moses' brother, such, for instance, as the part played by Aaron in the plagues, his role in some memorable events of the desert life, as the fall of the manna, the striking of water from the rock, the confirmation of the prerogatives of his priesthood against the pretensions of Core and the others, and, finally, the somewhat mysterious relation of his death, as it is found in Num., xx. ”

“ And if thou make an altar of stone unto me, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up a tool upon it, it shall be defiled. Thou shalt not go up by steps unto my altar, lest thy nakedness be discovered." These regulations fairly correspond to the practice hitherto commonly followed, as may be concluded from the scanty indications furnished by the histories of the patriarchs. The Deuteronomic Law, while enforcing the injunction of local unity of worship, repeats, on the occasion of the altar erected on Mount Hebal, these primitive rules: "Thou shalt build ... an altar ... ”

“ II. Patholooy.—How leprosy originated is unknown: bad nutrition, bad hygiene, constitutional conditions (tuberculosis, alcoholism, probably heredity, etc.) seem to favour its production and propagation. The disease is immediately caused by the infection of the bacillus lepræ, a small rod bacillus from .003 mm. to .007 mm. in length and .0005 mm. in diameter, straight or slightly curved, with pointed, rounded, or club-shaped extremities, usually found in short chains or beads. ”

“ Such expressions as "to come down from the altar" (Lev., ix, 22) lead us to suppose that this altar which was placed at the door of the tabernacle (Lev., iv, 18) was usually set upon a hillock and reached by a slope. Some believe also that the above-described altar, which was merely a framework, had to be filled with earth or stones, in compliance with the regulations of Ex., xx, 24, and in order to prevent it from being injured by the flames of the sacrifices. ”

“ In the United States, the majority of cases occur in Louisiana and California, while from many other States cases are occasionally reported, notably from New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Missouri, the Carolinas and Texas. In Louisiana leprosy has been gaining foothold since 1758, when it was introduced by the Acadians" (Dyer) . According to the statistics furnished by delegates to the second international conference on leprosy (at Bergen, Norway, Sept., 1909) , there are approximately 200,000 cases of the disease throughout the world: India, it is stated, coming first with 97,340 cases ”

“ The English and Scotch houses were under the full control of a custos, dean, prior, and, in some cases—as in the hospital of St. Lawrence, Canterbury which contained lepers of both sexes—a prioress. The ecclesiastical officers of the hospitals and the leper inmates were bound by the regulations laid down in the charters of the institution, which they had to observe strictly, especially as to offering up prayers for the repose of the souls of the founder and his family. ”

“ The average course of leprosy is about eight years, the mixed type being more rapidly concluded. "Death is the ordinary conclusion of every case, which may come (in 38 per cent of cases) from the exhaustive effects of the disease, from an almost necessary septicæmia, or from some intercurrent disease, as nephritis (in 22.5 per cent) ”

“ Consequent upon this, the muscles of the face become contracted and distorted by atrophy; ectropion of the lower lids prevents the patient from shutting his eyes; the lips become flabby, and the lower one drops. The sense of touch and muscle-control being lost, the hands are unable to grasp, and the contraction affecting the muscles of the forearm produces the claw-hand. In the lower extremities analogous effects are produced, resulting first in a shuffling gait and finally in complete incapacity of motion. ”

“ At his investiture he receives the chrism like a king and is called accordingly the anointed priest, he is adorned with a diadem and tiara like a king (Ex., xxviii) , and like a king, too, he wears the purple, except when he goes into the Holy of Holies (Lev., xvi, 4) . ”

“ I will never commit theft, or bring a false accusation against any one of the brethren, nor infringe the vow of chastity nor fail in my duty by appropriating anything, or leaving anything by will to others, unless by a dispensation granted by the brothers. ”

“ These primeval specimens of altars were necessarily most simple, very likely consisting of a heap of stones or earth, suitable for the fire and the victims. Some of the megalithic monuments left by prehistoric man seem to have been erected for this purpose. Probably of this simple description were the altars which Cain and Abel used to offer up their sacrifices, though scripture does not mention in connection with their names any such monuments ”

“ To answer this purpose, several countries (Norway and Sweden in particular) have by legislation ordered the isolation of lepers. In some other countries the Governments encourage, and, more or less generously, subsidize private establishments. Of all the states of the Union, Louisiana is the only one to have taken any definite steps: it partly supports the leper-home at Carville where some seventy patients are housed under the care of the Sisters of Charity of St. ”

“ Black and Menzies, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (Edinburgh, 1885) ; Van Hoonacker, Le sacerdoce lévitique dans la loi et dans l'histoire des Hébreux (London, 1889) ; Von Hummelauer, Das vormosaische Priesterthum in Israel (Freiburg, 1889) ”