Robert Charles Hope

“ For all observers allow, that as a rule true leprosy is a disease of very slow development. In the Middle Ages it is certain that the belief in the contagion of the true leprosy was very general, both among physicians and the common people; but it is also true that as medical science advanced, and the diagnosis of disease became more definite and reliable, this opinion lost ground, and was at length abandoned.”
The efforts being made by the “Missions to Lepers in India” cannot be too strongly commended to the benevolently inclined. ”

“ As soon as a man became a prey to the disease, his doom on earth was finally and irrevocably sealed. The laws, both civil and ecclesiastical, were awful in their severity to the poor Leper; not only was he cut off from the society of his fellow-men, and all family ties severed, but, he was dead to the law, he could not inherit property, or be a witness to any deed. According to English law Lepers were classed with idiots, madmen, outlaws, etc.
The Church provided a service to be said over the Leper on his entering a Lazar House [j] . ”

“ Thornton, of the Leper Hospital of Madras, said:—That his experience showed him [31] that Leprosy was contagious, and that it was likely to spread to this country; that the disease, however, could rarely, if ever, be communicated, except in the case of a healthy person by an abraded skin, coming in contact with a Leper. “The sufferings of the afflicted can be alleviated by (1) a liberal diet; (2) oleaginous anointings, by which the loss of sleep, one of the most distressing symptoms of the disease, can be prevented.” ”

“ If we adopt the view that Leprosy is another instance of disease induced by the presence of a particular microbe or bacillus, as in so many other diseases now the subject of absorbing interest to both the professional and the non-professional public, we may account for most of the facts adduced in support of the various theories; especially if we admit that there is reason to believe that such microbes, or [38] self-propagating infecting agents, vary greatly in the rapidity with which they permeate the body. ”

“ The rules of these Lazar-houses were very strict. The inmates were allowed to walk within certain prescribed limits only, generally a mile from the house. They were forbidden to stay out all night, and were not on any account permitted to enter the bakehouse, brewhouse, and granary, excepting the brother in charge, and he was not to dare to touch the bread and beer, since it was “most unfitting that persons with such a malady, should handle things appointed for the common use of men.” ”

“ And further, taking with you certain discreet and lawful men who have the best knowledge of this disease, all those persons, as well as citizens as others, of whatever sex or condition they may be, whom, upon diligent examination in this behalf to be made, within the city and suburbs aforesaid you shall find to be smitten with the aforesaid blemish of leprosy, you are to cause to be removed from the communion of sound citizens and persons without delay, and taken to solitary places in the country, there, as above stated, to abide. ”

“ On no other ground than this assumption, can these instances be reconciled with the Levitical Law.
In the Levitical, and in every other account of the disease, it is significant that there is no mention, or hint, of any loss of sensation in connection with the disorder, of any affection of the nerves, nor of any deformity of the body; no provision is made for those who were unable to take care of themselves, nor is there a tittle of evidence, or the barest hint given, that the disease was either contagious or dangerous. ”

“ The late Father Damian, who gave his life to ministration and alleviation of the sufferings of the 2,000 Lepers of Hawaii, in the island of Molakai, no doubt caught the disease of which he died, owing to the fact, that Lepers only handled and cooked the food, kneaded and baked the bread, washed the clothes, etc. The whole surroundings being Leprous, it is difficult to see how the good Father could well have avoided contamination. Still, the disease is not contagious if reasonable precautions are taken. ”

“ In chapter xiii., we are told that “if a man has a bright spot deeper than the skin of the flesh, the hair on which has turned white, or the white spot has a raw in it, and the scab be spread in the skin—then shall the priest pronounce him unclean.” But, if he have all the above symptoms, and “the scabs do not spread, or, if he be covered from head to foot—as white as snow—with the disease, then shall the priest pronounce him clean. ”

“ Bakers might only make certain kinds of bread. A table called the Assize of Bread was set up in every city and town, showing the weight of each kind of loaf according to the law, according as the price of wheat varied from one shilling to twenty shillings per quarter. The weight of the loaves was ‘set’ each year by the Mayors or Bailiffs. ”

“ The Biblical Leprosy never ended in death, whereas that of the Middle Ages always did. In one case there was little suffering, in the other usually a great deal.
In one the isolation was temporary only, in the other permanent.
The origin of the Mediæval Scourge is enshrouded in impenetrable mystery. The cure is as enigmatical. ”

“ It is, I believe, a singular fact, that the Jews, “the chosen people of God,” have a special immunity from the disease, being less predisposed than other races. Dr. V. Carter says that during a period of seventeen years, out of a very large number of cases in Bombay, he had seen only four cases, and but one death among Jews, that is of Elephantiasis Græcorum. ”

“ Some of the Lazar Houses were specially endowed for persons above the lower ranks who happened to [28] become affected with the disease. In 1491, Robert Pigot gave by will to the Leper House of Walsingham, in the Archdeaconry of Norwich, a house in, or near that town, for the use of two Leprous persons “of good families.”
Before considering the Royal Lepers, it will not be out of place to mention the death of S. Fiacre from Leprosy, in 665. He was the reputed son of Eugenius IV., King of Scotland, and is canonised in the Roman branch of the Church Catholic [u] . ”

“ Forasmuch as we have been given to understand, that many persons, as well of the city aforesaid, as others coming to the said city, being smitten with the blemish of leprosy, do publicly dwell among the other citizens and sound persons, and there continually abide ”

“ Only two persons in the whole of the Bible are stated to have died from the disease, and in each of these cases, it was specially so ordained by the Almighty, as a specific punishment for a particular sin. ”

“ With fresh flesh, fish, or eggs, a measure of salt was delivered. When fresh fish could not be had, red herrings were served, three to a single mess; or cheese and butter by weight; or three eggs. During Lent, each had a razer of wheat to make furmenty [f] , and two razers of beans to boil; sometimes greens or onions; and every day, except Sunday, the seventh part of a razer of bean meal; but on Sundays, a measure-and-a-half of pulse to make gruel. Red herrings were prohibited from Pentecost to Michaelmas, and at the latter, each received [22] two razers of apples. ”

“ Bernhard Gordon; and our own countrymen Gilbert, c. 1270; John of Gaddesden, Professor of Medicine in Merton College, Oxford, and Court Physician to Edward II., minutely describe the disease. [15]
It was the custom in those affected days, when a medical man or anyone wrote a book on medicine or a medicinal subject, to call it either a “rose” or a “lily,” as “Rosa Angelica,” “Lilium medecinæ.”
The following description of the malady is from the Lilium medecinæ, by Bernhard Gordon, written about 1305 or 1309. ”

“ Louis the XIV., is said to have died of the disease in 1715. It is also recorded, that in order to effect a cure, recourse was had to a barbarous superstitious custom, once unhappily common in Brazil, that of killing several fine healthy children, eating their hearts, livers, &c.; then washing in their blood, and annointing the body with grease made from the remains. Let us at least hope this impious and inhuman act is but “legend [z] ”.
SUMMARY.
It is trusted that the fact has been established that the Leprosy of the Bible, and of the Middle Ages, were entirely different diseases. ”

“ Edward the Black Prince, used to bathe in the Holy Well at Harbledon, near Canterbury, for his [29] Leprosy, and Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, had a licence at one time from the King of England to bathe in the waters of S. Lazarus’ Well on Muswell Hill, near where now stands the Alexandra Palace. The well belonged to the Order of S. John, Clerkenwell, a hospital order for Lepers. Three years before his death, he was unable to undertake the command of the army in its descent upon the northern counties of England, by reason of his Leprosy, of which he died in 1329, at the age of 55 [w] . ”

“ The weight of bread is given as five marks, that is £3 6s. 8d., at one time pounds, shillings, and pence, took the place of our weights—pounds, ounces, and pennyweights, hence these loaves would weigh 3 pounds 6 ounces and 8 pennyweights. The price of bread never varied, but the weight did; contrary to the modern custom.
[d] Mess—a particular number or set who eat together. At the Inns of Court at the present day, a mess consists of four persons. ”

“ He gives three stages or classes of the disease, viz., the (1) occult, (2) the infallible, and (3) the last, or terminating signs. None of these indications are laid down in Leviticus for the guidance of the Jewish Priests.
(i.) “The occult premonitory signs of Leprosy are, a reddish colour of the face, verging to duskiness; the expiration begins to be changed, the voice grows hoarse, the hairs become thinned and weaker, and the perspiration and breath incline to fœtidity; the mind is melancholic with frightful dreams and nightmare ”

“ Some parts of this Hospital, including the chapel and its altar in situ, remain.
In 1553 at the Lazar House of SS. Mary and Erkemould, Ilford, Essex, founded by the Abbess of Barking, c. 1190, it is recorded that “instead of 13 pore men beying Lepers, two pryest, and one clerke thereof there is at this day but one pryest and two pore men.”
In Scotland the disease lingered till the middle of last century. A day for public thanksgiving for the supposed total deliverance of that country from the scourge of Leprosy, was enjoined, in 1742. The disease however was not quite extinct there ”

“ Where a chapel was not attached, the inmates appear to have attended the parish church for service.
There was a special order of Knights founded very early, in Jerusalem, united to the general order of the Knights Hospitallers, whose especial province was to look after the sick, particularly Lepers. They seem to have separated from the Knights Hospitallers at the end of the 11th, or beginning of the 12th centuries. ”

“ For fungous flesh, it promotes discharge, and destroys both gangrenes and carbuncles. This is found in abundance on the cottage roofs about Melton Mowbray and Burton-Lazars.
“11. Celandine—chelidonium. Tintern Abbey, about Whitsuntide, is one large white tapestry of celandine. When I visited Tintern, I was struck by the lush clustering growth of this flower in 1885. An old legend says that it is so called because the swallow cures the eyes of its young of blindness by application of this herb. ”