I explain that the origin of the leprosy is, to some extent, shrouded in mystery; that I was reading the other day from Strabo, a Greek author, who says that leprosy was generated in Egypt among the Jews, while they were in bondage under the Pharaohs. He says the Jews were banished to rock-quarries, where they had been getting stone to build pyramids and walled cities; that, having double burdens to perform, and half rations to live upon, they killed and ate diseased hogs which gave rise to a disease among the people known as the leprosy. For this reason the Jews passed a law that all Hebrews should ever after abstain from eating flesh of swine. That law, we know, is still observed, but Strabo’s account of the origin of the leprosy is probably a myth.
Johnson asks: “Does the Bible throw no light upon this subject?”
“None at all. The Good Book has much to say about the disease, and the ceremonial law concerning the treatment of lepers is strict and explicit. As to its origin, however, not a word is said.”
Leprosy is the most fearful disease that was ever visited upon the human family. Never yet has a case of it been cured without the direct intervention of God. Man’s skill is powerless to stay its ravages on the human frame and system. If there were no leprosy on earth to-day, probably there never would be any. It is not now, so far as can be ascertained, generated anew and afresh. It is inherited from one’s parents, and in this way it is handed down from generation to generation. It is absolutely impossible for leprous parents to give birth to a child who will not die of leprosy, unless, perchance, the babe die before the disease breaks out. The child may possibly remain sound and healthy until he is six or even sixteen years old; but the fearful disease is in his bones and blood and system, and it is coming to the surface—it is coming to stay, to eat up the body and “steal away the life o’ the building.”
Leprosy warns its victim of its approach by a cold and chilly sensation, which alternates with fever. Then a purple fleck or blotch, with a hard lump under it, comes on the face. The blotches now come thick and fast. Blotch meets blotch, until the bloated face is covered, and the cheeks look like purple clusters of grapes. The blotches finally swell, itch, fester, burst and pour forth an immense amount of pus and corruption. Then they heal up for a while, only, however, to itch, swell and burst again.
About a mile and a half from the centre of the city, we see a great rock wall, enclosing twenty or more acres of land, rising up like the walls of a penitentiary, twenty-five or thirty feet high. Pointing to this wall, Abraham says: “There is the hospital.”
I respond, “Yes, there it is, but I want to go in it.”
“Want to go in it?” said he.
“Yes, Abraham, and I want you to go with me.”
With a strange look in his face, and a tremor in his voice, he answers, “You don’t mean that, do you?”