Elephantiasis graecorum, or true leprosy / by Robert Liveing.

  • Liveing, Robert, 1834-1919.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elephantiasis graecorum, or true leprosy / by Robert Liveing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    and wipe them with the towel, and embracing them with both hands, kissed them with the utmost .devo- tion. Upon which her brother addressed her thus : What is this which you are doing, my Lady ? In truth, if the King knew this, he would never deign to kiss with his lips your mouth, contaminated by the pollution of the lepers' feet! And she, smiling, replied, ' Who knows not that the feet of an Eternal King are to be preferred to the lips of an Earthly King? Behold, it was for this that I invited you, dearest brother, that you might learn, by my ex- ample, to perform similar actions. Do, I beseech you, that which you see me doing. And when her brother had made answer that he would by no means do such things, as she persevered in her employ- ment, David, with a smile, withdrew.' Yolz considers that leprosy in the Middle Ages was by no means so contagious as might be inferred from the severity of the seclusion practised; but that this may be rather attributed to the custom of the a ore, when these who were of the same class in social status, culture, necessities, and distresses, often united to form themselves into a society or brotherhood, which was kept together by a religious bond. The isolation from the rest of the world which hundreds of thousands practised voluntarily, was required as a duty from the lepers, who retired to the leper house, where they usually led an indolent life, supported by the alms of the charitable, or at the cost of the c