Leprosy / by Prince A. Morrow.

  • Morrow, Albert, Prince, 1846-1913.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Leprosy / by Prince A. Morrow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    to be cruel and impossible to keei), aud concludes that strict segre- gation as understood and practised uowada^'S never entered tiie minds of those desiring to separate lepers from the health}-. The religious duties forced upon inmates under the control of the church were of the most monastical character. During Lent all the brothers as well as sisters were obliged to receive discipline three dsijs in the week. Disobedient members were punished at the dis- cretion of their prior aud prioress by corporeal correction, aud offenders who refused to submit to the usual discipline were reduced to bread and water, and after the third offence they were liable to be ejected. No inmate was allowed to transgress the bounds or to attempt to go beyond the walls of the hospital without his close cape, or to stand or walk by any king's road before or after service. By a decree of the Archbishop of Canterbury (1200) lepers, when forming a large colon3% were entitled to have their own church and graveyard, but in many places this special church and graveyard were quite impossible through lack of funds and lack of lepers. In many places arrange- ments were made by which the lepers were enabled to take some share in the church services by means of the leper window or squint window or hagioscope. There were generally openings or apertures in the wall or narrow, oblong slits through which the elevation of the Host at the high altar and other ceremonies might be viewed with- out the lepers themselves being seen by the congregation. Certain churches also had a st(jue slab let into the sill of the window and so placed that a leper could receive the sacrament without actual con- tact with the administrator. By the laws of England lepers were classed with idiots, mendi- cants, outlaws, etc., as incapable of being heirs. In both Britain and Normandy lepers were expelled from society, and had no power to alienate their effects or dispose of them to any one. They were regarded as dead. It would appear that the means provided for the sustenance of the lepers were not of a very abundant character. The lepers were allowed to go where they chose and beg what they could or reside in any leper hospital to which they could get admittance. A regulation in support of the hospitals all over the land states that tainted beef is to be sent to the leper house in the neighborhood, and if there was not one, then it was to be destroyed. Then again, when a wild beast was found wounded or dead in the forest it was to be sent to the nearest leper hospital. Many hospitals were supported by voluntary or compulsory con- tributions of a certain toll ujjon everything carried to the markets.