[202] Rymer’s Foedera, v. pt. 2, p. 166.
[203] Wharton’s Anglia Sacra, 11. Praef. p. 32.
[204] The expression “leprosa Sodomorum” occurs in a Latin poem from a medieval MS. found in Switzerland. The verses are printed in full by Hensler, Geschichte der Lustseuche, p. 307.
[205] These and other particulars relating to lepers in Scotland are given in Simpson’s Antiquarian Notices of Leprosy in Scotland and England (Edin. Med. and Surg. Journ. Oct. 1841, Jan. and April 1842), a series of excellent papers which have been for many years the source of most that has been written of medieval leprosy in this country.
[206] Letter to Barrington, 8 January, 1778.
[207] These numbers seem to stand for the contents of the larders in all the various manors of De Spenser.
[208] Mr Jonathan Hutchinson has been adding, year after year, to the evidence that semi-putrid fish, eaten in that state by preference or of necessity, is the chief cause of modern leprosy, and he has successfully met many of the apparent exceptions. Norway has had leprosy in some provinces for centuries; and it is significant that William of Malmesbury, referring to those who went on the first Crusade, says: “Scotus familiaritatem pulicum reliquit, Noricus cruditatem piscium.” (Gesta Regum, Eng. Hist. Soc. II. 533.)
[209] In his section De preservatione a lepra (p. 345) Gilbert advises to avoid, among other things, all salted fish and meat, and dried bacon.
[210] Acts of Robert III. in the Regiam Majestatem, p. 414 (quoted by Simpson, Ed. Med. and Surg. Journ. vol. 57, p. 416).
[211] Dr Gilbert Skene, of Aberdeen, and afterwards of Edinburgh, in his book on the plague (1568), has an incidental remark about “evil and corrupt meats” which may be taken in a literal sense: “As we see dailie the pure man subject to sic calamitie nor the potent, quha are constrynit be povertie to eit evill and corrupte meittis, and diseis is contractit, heir of us callit pandemiall.” (Bannatyne Club edition, p. 6.)