Leprosy In the Middle Ages.

Manawatu Herald, 7 April 1904, Page 4

Leprosy In the Middle Ages.

In tho middle ages leprosy extended over the ■whole of Europe. Nearly every city In England, Franco and Germany had Ita hospital for such cases, and Italy suffered terribly from the disease. The maximum was reached in 1300, when there were 19,* 000 leper houses in Europe. Tho patient! were excommunicated by papal ‘‘bull*.** They wore cut off as “unclean" from In* tercourso of all sorts, and only in this way was tho plague gradually suppressed. II disappeared os an epidemic in Europe la tho sixteenth century. A writer in the New Y ork Times says: It is still found «rV k "hero In tho orient, particularly among eryv*. 1,8 of Egypt and India, in China tho follow all tho coast lands of Africa, and Japan, lu , ' r, uiritius, St. Helena and on Madagascar, iw 1 Central and South Madeira, in Mexico an** -o found in Eu- ■ America. Such sufferers a*-, 5 u Norway, ■ rope at present, as, for example, out whore thero were 1,000 lepers in I»<*. ■) a of a population of 1,850,000, though th-v was a decrease from 2,380 in 1804. They ■ arc also found on tbo Greek islands or ■ games and Crete and to a loss degree m " Italy, Franco, Spain, Portugal and the Bussian provinces, and single cases are also occasionally found in middle Europe.