A few observations on the leprosy of the Middle Ages / by T. Shapter.

Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A few observations on the leprosy of the Middle Ages / by T. Shapter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    7/112 (page 3)
    OF THE UIDDIE AGES. o It has been particularly stated in the above sentence, the leprosy, /or z&hich these institulions were founded,'' in order that, in the investigation of the subject, there may be no misconception or quibble about a name, as all medical men, we are assured, are fully aware, that a disease termed leprosy, having for its characteristic feature a scaly eruption, is, at the present period, of frequent occur- rence. In pursuing then the enquiry into the his- tory of the disease in the middle ages, the following questions naturally present them- selves :—whether are we to consider it as an extinct disease, or as the leprosy of the present day occurring then in the same form and to the same extent as it does now;—or the leprosy of the present day occurring in a more aggravated form;—or whether the terra leprosy during these middle centuries was not applied to some other disease ? Though as above stated no practical utility can be derived from the prosecution of this enquiry, yet an interest is derived not only