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. Cures were not only possible, and
common, but they were the rule. Josephus speaks of Leprosy in a man as
but "a misfortune in the colour of his skin." S. Augustine said that
when Lepers were restored to health, "they were _mundati_, not
_sanati_, because Leprosy is an ailment affecting merely the colour,
not the health, or the soundness of the senses, and the limbs."

It is a most curious, and interesting problem which has yet to be
solved, why a man should be "unclean" when he was but partially
covered by the disease, and yet, when he was wholly covered with it,
he should be "clean."

That no argument in support of contagion can be drawn simply from the
sentence of expulsion from the camp, is evident from Numbers v., 2-4;
for Lepers, and non-Lepers, are equally excluded on the ground of
"uncleanness." The laws of seclusion applied as rigorously to the
uncleanness induced by _touching_ a leper, or even a dead body, as
well as in other cases, where no question of contagion could exist. It
appears more than probable that the "cleansing" was merely a
ceremonial, ordained for those attacked by the disease at a certain
stage, implying some deeper meaning, than I for one, am able to
discern. I therefore leave it to the theologian to whom it appertains,
rather than to a humble and enquiring layman as myself.

That the descriptions of the various forms of skin disease were
intended, not to denote differences in their nature or pathology, but
to enable the priests to discriminate between the "clean" and
"unclean" forms, is manifest. They were intended purely for practical
use.

The first allusion--the only one in the Bible--we have to a Lazar, or
Leper house, occurs in 2 Kings, xv., 5, "And the Lord smote the King
so that he was a Leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a
_'several' house_."

THE LEPROSY OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

The Leprosy of the Middle Ages known as _Elephantiasis Graecorum_,
_Lepra Arabum_, and _Lepra tuberculosis_, is not yet extinct. It is
very curious that whilst _Lepra Arabum_ is the same as _Elephantiasis
Graecorum_ or true Leprosy, the _Elephantiasis Arabum_ is a totally
distinct disease. The former is the most loathsome and revolting of
the many awful and terrible scourges, with which the Almighty, in his
wisdom, has seen fit, fr