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 institution; 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, Essex, 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 Association 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.