CHAPTER XIV
LEPROST, PROPERLV SO0 CALLED; AND SCABIES

Leprosy, so ealled by the ancients, differs from elephantiasis
chiefly in two respects, namely in locality and substance.  Ele—
phantia works in deeper, although it also affects the periphery;
but leprosy is more on the surface. Moreover the substance
of elephantia seems to be denser and still more inflamed, and
hence it goes in deeper.  But both have their origin in the black
bile humor. It may easily happen that in both maladies there
is present sometimes also a certain amount of salty pituita,
and for that reason neither elephantia nor leprosy has regularly
a single sort of manifestation. But if leprosy is prolonged and
becomes in the course of time more malignant, it then passes
into elephantia. Now leprosy has its own special pustules, and
sometimes they are numerous, but they are drier than in ele—
phantia and scaly rather than phagedenic. 'The patient is
nearly always attacked by pruritus also, the body becomes
emaciated, and in a word, leprosy is a milder form of elephantia«—
sis. In very many cases it arises originally in ourselves, from
some fault in the humors and the system and regimen; but it
can also be caught from another person by contagion, and one
may even have it at birth, just like elephantia.

Psora, which is nowadays called scabies, is a still milder af—
fection than leprosy, but in a severer form it may pass into
leprosy, just as leprosy in a severe form may pass into elephan—
tia. It seems that the Greeks meant by the word psora only
that kind of scabies which is rather dry, and indicates black
bile; hence they use the term psora in a more restricted sense
than we use scabies.

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