Category:Leprosy

Lep"ro*sy, n. Etym: [See Leprous.] (Med.)

Defn: A cutaneous disease which first appears as blebs or as reddish, shining, slightly prominent spots, with spreading edges. These are often followed by an eruption of dark or yellowish prominent nodules, frequently producing great deformity. In one variety of the disease, anæsthesia of the skin is a prominent symptom. In addition there may be wasting of the muscles, falling out of the hair and nails, and distortion of the hands and feet with destruction of the bones and joints. It is incurable, and is probably contagious.Mycobacterium leprae, curable in most cases by therapy with a combination of antibiotics, but cases resistant to therapy are increasing.

Note: The disease now called leprosy, also designated as Lepra or Lepra Arabum, and Elephantiasis Græcorum, is not the same as the leprosy of the ancients. The latter was, indeed, a generic name for many varieties of skin disease (including our modern leprosy, psoriasis, etc.), some of which, among the Hebrews, rendered a person ceremonially unclean. A variety of leprosy of the Hebrews (probably identical with modern leprosy) was characterized by the presence of smooth, shining, depressed white patches or scales, the hair on which participated in the whiteness while the skin and adjacent flesh became insensible. It was incurable disease.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Leprosy - (Heb. tsara'ath, a "smiting," a "stroke," because the disease was regarded as a direct providential infliction). This name is from the Greek lepra, by which the Greek physicians designated the disease from its scaliness. We have the description of the disease, as well as the regulations connected with it, in Leviticus 13; Leviticus 14; Numbers 12:10, etc. There were reckoned six different circumstances under which it might develop itself, (1.) without any apparent cause (Leviticus 13:2); (2.) its reappearance (Leviticus 13:9); (3.) from an inflammation (Leviticus 13:18); (4.) on the head or chin (Leviticus 13:29); (5.) in white polished spots (Leviticus 13:38, Leviticus 13:39); (6.) at the back or in the front of the head (Leviticus 13:40). Lepers were required to live outside the camp or city (Numbers 5:1; Numbers 12:10, etc.). This disease was regarded as an awful punishment from the LeviticusLord|Lord (2 Kings 5:7; 2 Chronicles 26:20). (See MIRIAM; GEHAZI; UZZIAH.) This disease "begins with specks on the eyelids and on the palms, gradually spreading over the body, bleaching the hair white wherever they appear, crusting the affected parts with white scales, and causing terrible sores and swellings. From the skin the disease eats inward to the bones, rotting the whole body piecemeal." "In Christ's day no leper could live in a walled town, though he might in an open village. But wherever he was he was required to have his outer garment rent as a sign of deep grief, to go bareheaded, and to cover his beard with his mantle, as if in lamentation at his own virtual death. He had further to warn passers-by to keep away from him, by calling out, 'Unclean! unclean!' nor could he speak to any one, or receive or return a salutation, since in the East this involves an embrace." That the disease was not contagious is evident from the regulations regarding it (Leviticus 13:12, Leviticus 13:13, Leviticus 13:36; 2 Kings 5:1). Leprosy was "the outward and visible sign of the innermost spiritual corruption; a meet emblem in its small beginnings, its gradual spread, its internal disfigurement, its dissolution little by little of the whole body, of that which corrupts, degrades, and defiles man's inner nature, and renders him unmeet to enter the presence of a pure and holy God" (Maclear's Handbook O.T). Our Lord cured lepers (Matthew 8:2, Matthew 8:3; Mark 1:40). This divine power so manifested illustrates his gracious dealings with men in curing the leprosy of the soul the fatal taint of sin.