America was invaded for the first
time in 1740, and since 1849 the disease has been endemic in Brazil.
Peru and the Argentine Republic have also received severe visitations
of yellow fever since 1854. In Cuba the disease is epidemic during
June, July, and August, and it appears with such certainty that the
Revolutionists at the present time count more on the agency of yellow
fever in the destruction of the unacclimated Spanish soldiers than on
their own efforts.

Leprosy is distinctly a malady of Oriental origin, and existed in
prehistoric times in Egypt and Judea. It was supposed to have been
brought into Europe by a Roman army commanded by Pompey, after an
expedition into Palestine. Leprosy was mentioned by several authors in
the Christian era. France was invaded about the second century, and
from that time on to the Crusades the disease gradually increased. At
this epoch, the number of lepers or ladres becoming so large, they were
obliged to confine themselves to certain portions of the country, and
they took for their patron St. Lazare, and small hospitals were built
and dedicated to this saint. Under Louis VIII 2000 of these hospitals
were counted, and later, according to Dupony, there were 19,000 in the
French kingdom. Various laws and regulations were made to prevent the
spread of the contagion. In 1540 it was said that there were as many as
660 lepers in one hospital in Paris.

No mention is made in the Hippocratic writings of elephantiasis
graecorum, which was really a type of leprosy, and is now considered
synonymous with it. According to Rayer, some writers insist that the
affection then existed under the name of the Phoenician disease. Before
the time of Celsus, the poet Lucretius first speaks of elephantiasis
graecorum, and assigns Egypt as the country where it occurs. Celsus
gives the principal characteristics, and adds that the disease is
scarcely known in Italy, but is very common in certain other countries.
Galen supplies us with several particular but imperfect
cases--histories of elephantiasis graecorum, with a view to demonstrate
the value of the flesh of the viper, and in another review he adds that
the disease is common in Alexandria. Aretaeus has left a very accurate
picture of the symptoms of elephantiasis graecorum; and Pliny
recapitulates the principal features and tells us that the disease is
indigenous in Egypt. The opinion of the contagiousness of elephantiasis
graecorum which we find ann