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.

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    the period of these holy expeditions ; and lepers themselves are mentioned, earlier even than the time that Pope Silvester II. planned a crusade, when, at the close of the tenth century, this ornament of his age entreated unavailingly the church universal to succour the church of Jerusalem. If we were to believe the account of some historians, we might trace the origin of the order of St. Lazarus—an order intimately connected with this disease—to a supposed association of Christians in the first century. As suggested, however, by Mr. Mills, these accounts are no doubt fabulous. Neverthe- less, in very early times there is indisputable evidence to the formation of lazarettos; and in the fourth century, according to the autho- rity of Theodoret,* the lepers confined in them were in a most deplorable condition, for these poor men were interdicted from inter- course, not only with the world in general, but also with their friends. * Vol. 4, c. 16.