The Leper in England: with some account of English lazar-houses Part 3

"11. Celandine--_chelidonium_. Tintern Abbey, about Whitsuntide, is one large white tapestry of celandine. When I visited Tintern, I was struck by the lush cl.u.s.tering growth of this flower in 1885. An old legend says that it is so called because the swallow cures the eyes of its young of blindness by application of this herb. "Certainly," says P. Xavier, Franciscan of the Holy Land, "it makes a good lotion for the eyes of the Leper, and is often used by us in France."

"If I were to add here the history of the _quinquina_, or Jesuit's bark--is it not told us that the lions drank of a well into which chincona had fallen, and thus suggested the useful Jesuits' bark, or quinine?--it would take me into the seventeenth century, and be a little out of my track; but one word must be added on the girjan oil, the _dipterocarpus_ of quite modern days, which seems to have great vogue in Barbadoes. This I do because it is the product of a magnificent tropical tree, and the hospitals did not forget in the treatment of Leprosy the use of common trees."

Isolation is the only known effectual way of stamping out the disease, by its means was the great diminution in the numbers of victims affected here, by the end of the 14th century, and the almost total and complete extinction of it in the middle of the 16th century, 1560.

In 1350 at S. Julian's Lazar House, S. Alban's it is recorded that "the number of Lepers had so diminished, their maintenance was below the revenue of the inst.i.tution; there are not now above three, sometimes only two, occasionally only one."

In 1520 the Lazar House of S. Mary Magdalene, Ripon, founded in 1139, by Archbishop Thurstan, for the relief of the Lepers of the whole district, contained only two priests and five poor people to pray for all "Christen sowlez." Some parts of this Hospital, including the chapel and its altar _in situ_, remain.

In 1553 at the Lazar House of SS. Mary and Erkemould, Ilford, Ess.e.x, founded by the Abbess of Barking, c. 1190, it is recorded that "instead of 13 pore men beying Lepers, two pryest, and one clerke thereof there is at this day but one pryest and two pore men."

In Scotland the disease lingered till the middle of last century. A day for public thanksgiving for the supposed total deliverance of that country from the scourge of Leprosy, was enjoined, in 1742. The disease however was not quite extinct there; it may be now.

We are told at the present day, there are 123,924 Lepers in Hawaii; and in India not less than 250,000, or a quarter of a million. There are also large numbers in Barbadoes, and in the Sandwich Islands.

A striking and recent proof of the efficacy of isolation is seen in the fact, that in Norway there were 2,000 Lepers in 1867. That number has now been reduced to 700.

There are probably not more than 20 Lepers in England at the present day.

In the February number of the Monthly Record of the a.s.sociation in aid of the Bishop of Capetown, is a short account of the Lepers on Robben Island, to whom Her gracious Majesty the Queen has graciously sent two photographs of herself, which we are informed will be much appreciated, probably a great deal more, than the superabundance of scientific literature which is sent for their delectation, not a word of which can they read, much less understand. They are also surfeited, we are told, by no small numbers of copies of that book, so dear and so well known, to all Cambridge undergraduates, _Paleys' Evidences of Christianity_. It would have been more considerate had the munificent benefactors sent the lighter edition of the writer's great work, familiarly known as _Paley's Ghost_.

There is just one other subject to mention, namely the common error that the low narrow windows often seen in our older parish churches, were to enable the Leper to hear the service, and to receive the Eucharist, said to have been handed out to him. In support of this we have but guess-work; of proof, there is none.

In concluding, it will not fail to be interesting, to quote a few words from so eminent an authority as Sir Risdon Bennett, M.D., LL.D., F.R.C.S., ex-President of the Royal College of Physicians:--"If we adopt the view that Leprosy is another instance of disease induced by the presence of a particular microbe or bacillus, as in so many other diseases now the subject of absorbing interest to both the professional and the non-professional public, we may account for most of the facts adduced in support of the various theories; especially if we admit that there is reason to believe that such microbes, or self-propagating infecting agents, vary greatly in the rapidity with which they permeate the body. For all observers allow, that as a rule _true leprosy_ is a disease of very slow development. In the Middle Ages it is certain that the belief in the contagion of the _true leprosy_ was very general, both among physicians and the common people; but it is also true that as medical science advanced, and the diagnosis of disease became more definite and reliable, this opinion lost ground, and was at length abandoned."

The efforts being made by the "Missions to Lepers in India" cannot be too strongly commended to the benevolently inclined. The Asylums or Lazar Houses at Almora, Dara, and elsewhere, in India, are entirely supported by this society, which has under its care above 100 Lepers, at the cost of only about 6 per annum for each adult.

If I have awakened an interest in this remarkable and unique subject, and at the same time, above all, excited a stronger feeling of sympathy for our brothers and sisters suffering at the present time from the disease--a living death--in various portions of the globe, my humble efforts will not have been in vain.

APPENDIX A.

NOTES.

[a] An obolus = a halfpenny.

[b] Bolted Corn was so-called from it being "boulted" or sifted in a bulter or bolter; this was a special cloth for the purpose of separating the fine flour from the bran, after the manner of a modern sieve. Bread made from un-bolted flour was known as "Tourte bread,"

bakers of such were not permitted by law to have a bolter, nor were they allowed to make white bread; nor were bakers of white bread to make "Tourte." The best kind of white bread was called Simnel, manchet, Pain demaign or payman, so-called from having an impress of our Lord upon it, the next best was the Wastell or Puff, the third and inferior sort was called c.o.c.ket or Light bread.

Black bread was known as "All Sorts."

Bakers might only make certain kinds of bread. A table called the a.s.size of Bread was set up in every city and town, showing the weight of each kind of loaf according to the law, according as the price of wheat varied from one s.h.i.+lling to twenty s.h.i.+llings per quarter. The weight of the loaves was 'set' each year by the Mayors or Bailiffs.

[c] The weight of bread is given as five marks, that is 3 6s. 8d., at one time pounds, s.h.i.+llings, and pence, took the place of our weights--pounds, ounces, and pennyweights, hence these loaves would weigh 3 pounds 6 ounces and 8 pennyweights. The price of bread never varied, but the weight did; contrary to the modern custom.

[d] Mess--a particular number or set who eat together. At the Inns of Court at the present day, a mess consists of four persons.

[e] This rather upsets the theory as to the origin of eating a goose at Michaelmas, connected with Queen Elizabeth and the news of the English victory over the Spanish Armada.

[f] Furmenty or Frumenty was made of new wheat boiled in milk and seasoned with sugar and spices.

[g] Ale, anciently was made of wheat, barley, and honey, the term was then applied exclusively to malt liquor. Hops are supposed to have been introduced into this country in 1524 from Flanders, and the term "Beer" was used to describe liquors brewed with an infusion of hops. The two terms are now generally used synonymously.

[h] The seven Canonical hours of the Church were:--

{ Mattins or Nocturns, usually sung between midnight and daybreak.

(1) { Lauds, a service at daybreak following closely on and sometimes { joined to mattins.

(2) Prime, a later morning service, about six o'clock.

(3) Tierce, a service at nine o'clock.

(4) s.e.xts, a service at noon.

(5) Nones, a service at three in the afternoon.

(6) Vespers, a service at six in the evening.

(7) Compline, a service at eight or nine in the evening, being the last of the seven hours.

These seven offices were condensed in 1519 into two, our present Mattins and Evensong.

[i] A Paternoster is a chaplet of beads.

A Rosary comprises 15 Paternosters and Glorias, and 150 Ave Marias, divided into three parts, each of which contains five decades consisting of one paternoster, ten Ave Marias, and one Gloria, each preceded by the Creed.

[j] Similar Services and Ma.s.ses for the Dead were sung over Monks and Nuns on retiring from the world to a Monastery or Nunnery. See Manuale ad usum Sarum.

[k] Russet was a coa.r.s.e cloth of a reddish brown or grey colour, said by Henry de Knyghton c. 1380, to have been introduced into England by the Lollards.

Hall in his "Satires" says, "Russet clothes in the 16th century are indicative of countryfolk."

The tunic is a very ancient garment, it is found on the sculptures and paintings of Early Egypt; it was in constant use by the Greeks, and was ultimately adopted by the Romans. It was worn in this country, in a variety of forms and lengths until the end of the fifteenth century.

(Costumes in England, by Fairholt, ed. by Hon. H. Dillon, Vol. II.)