Curiosities of medical experience / By J.G. Millingen.

  • John G. Millingen
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Curiosities of medical experience / By J.G. Millingen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    species which is called “ elephant leg,’’ and which is not uncommon at Barbadoes, St. Christopher, and Nevis. Parsons, in his Travels in Asia and Africa, informs us that a similar complaint reigns on the coast of Malabar, where it is called the “ Cochin leg.’? The Hindoo physicians treat it with pills of arsenic and black pepper. A curious species of leprosy appeared in Rome, under the reign of Tiberius, brought into the country from Asi. The eruption first broke out upon the chin, whence it was called Mentagra, and is thus alluded to by Martial : Non uleus acre, pustuleve lucentes ; Nec triste mentum, sordidive lichenes. From the chin it extended over the entire body, and on its disap- pearance left scars more unsightly, if possible, than the former dis- ease. Its virulence and difficulty of cure induced the Romans to send to Egypt for attendance. The same disease prevailed in the second century, and Soranus, a physician of Aquitania, was sent for to heal it. Crispus, a friend of Galen, is said to have discovered the best method of cure. Pliny has given an accurate account of the mentagra in his Natural History, lib. xxvii. cap. 1.. According to the same writer, elephantiasis was brought to Rbme by Pompey’ s troops. Plutarch fixes its apparition to the time when Asclepiades of Bithynia flourished as one of his disciples. ‘Themison wrote a treatise on the disease, which is mentioned by Celius Aurelianus, but has not been preserved from the ravages of time. Lucilius ealled the affection odiosa Vitiligo. The Gemursa of Pliny ap- pears to have been a similar complaint: and Triller thinks that it was the Gumretha of the Talmud. Formerly, in England, the causes of lepers were committed to the ecclesiastical courts, as it was prohibited to prosecute a leper before a lay judge, as they were under the protection of the church, which separated them from the rest of the people by a ritual. At this period a law existed, called Leproso amovendo, for the removal of lepers who ventured to mix in society. Thus leprosy may be considered one of the most terrific maladies inflicted on mankind. Holy Writ affords us abundant proofs of its fatal character. It is probable that this disease was first observed under the scorching sun of Egypt, whence it spread its ravages to Greece and Asia; and when the East was obliged to submit to the Roman legions, the conquerors carried the scourge of the vanquished to their own coun- try. From Italy the disorder extended to France ; and in the reign of Philip I. we find some members of the church militant, called hos- pitaliers, who spent their arduous life in attending upon lepers and waging war against the infidels. The Hebrew tribes, on quitting Egypt, were subject to three kinds of leprosy ; all of them were distinguished by the name of Berat (S72), or “bright spot.”’ One called Boak ()s73), of a dull white ; and two named J'sorat (MP3), or “venom or ma- lignity :’”’ the first variety of the latter being the Berat Ledbena, or bright white berat ; and the next the Bera¢ Cecha, or the dark and 15*
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