pray thee, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed (eaten away) when he cometh out of his mother’s womb’ (v.”*).
In Ly 13 there are minute instructions given for the recognition of these diseases in their early stages. Here the name is used with nega’ pre- fixed to indicate that it is regarded as a ‘stroke from God’ (ef. Vulgate rendering of ‘smitten’ by leprosum in Is 534). There are here apparently seven varieties of the disease to be distinguished. (1) nxy s&éth, LXX οὐλή, a rising of the skin or subcutaneous nodule. (2) ππβρ sappahath, LXX (3) πηπϑ bahereth, LXX τηλαύγημα, a bright or shining spot. These are the earliest appearances, and even at this stage the disease is said to exhibit the two distinctive features of being really subcuticular, and of turn- ing the hairs white. If these diagnostic marks are present when the suspect is brought before the priest, he is to be pronounced unclean at once ; but if not, he is to be shut up for seven days, and then again inspected. Should the disease have undergone no change during this period, he is again to be isolated for another week, and again examined. (4) Another form, or perhaps a later stage of the disease, is that in which ‘quick raw flesh,’ that is, red granulation tissue, appears in the tumid spot (v.°) ; this was to be recognized as a sure sign, and the person declared unclean. (5) One of the most singular provisions of the law is that in v.", referring to the cases in which the white efflorescence becomes universal from head to foot ; when this occurs, the person is pronounced clean. Itis probable that in this case the priest was to consider it as a form of psoriasis, and not as a genuine leprosy, which is rarely universal until a late stage, and then is not white. Τῇ, however, any sign of the coexistence of leprous ulceration with the whiteness should appear, he is to be declared unclean (v.'-), To provide for the
σημασία, a scab or cuticular crust.
ease in which this redness or sore is only a |
temporary pustule, such as often occurs in almost any skin disease, the patient is to come again to the priest as soon as the sore is healed, when he is again to be pronvunced clean (v.!*),
In all these cases the diagnosis in the early stages is between leprosy in which the infiltration is dermal and the hairs lose their colour, and eczema or psoriasis in which the swelling is chiefly epidermal and the hairs do not change. If, during the periods of quarantine, the spot appears to be fading ("72 hahah, RV ‘dim,’ AV ‘somewhat dark,’
LEPROSY
following LXX duavpd), and not spreading, he is te be pronounced clean, and the disease is said to be only nose> mispahath, a scab, i.e. psoriasis, unless on further inspection it appeared to be spreading.
(6) Another variety, described in ν. δ, is that which attacks the ciecatrix of an ulcer or a boil, pay shéhin, in which there is a white rising, sé’éth iUbhandh, that is, a smooth shining spot, red in patches; the description seems to indicate some one of an obscure group of diseases of the skin, called by various names, cicatricial keloid, scleri- asis, ete. Between all these diseases and lepros there are many points of resemblance, but there 18 no evidence that they are contagious. In doubt- ful cases the priest is to require a week’s quaran- tine in order to decide whether it is true leprosy or only zdrebeth hashshéhin (RV ‘the sear of the boil,’ AV ‘a burning boil’), a temporary swelling from the irritation of the scar, or else only the cicatrix itself (v.). A similar form of the disease may attack the sear of a burn (v.™), and is to be treated in the same way.
(7) The form of disease affecting the hai scalp (v.%) is called pp3 nethek (LXX θραῦσμα, A ‘a dry scall’), and is to be diagnosed by the presence of thin yellow hairs. Beery, suspicious case is to be inspected, and if there be no black hair in the spot whereby its nature may be tested, the person is to be subjected to a week’s quaran- tine, after which, if the disease is not spreading, all the hair is to be shaven except that on the seall. If, after another week’s πε δῖον the seall still appears to be spreading, he is to be pronounced unclean, whether there be yellow hair or not. In the Tract Negaim, x. 5, it is directed that two hairs should be left in shaving the part, outside the margin of the scall, so as to test its spreading. Yellow thin hair and yellow crusts are character- istic of favus or crusted ringworm, which is a very contagious disease, due to the presence of a fungus, Achorion Schenleinii. The presence of black hair in any diseased patch is usually sufficient evidence that no parasitic fungus is present.
In y.*# rules are given for the diagnosis of behdroth lébhdnoth, white shining spots on the skin,—whether another variety of disease or not it is difficult to say. If these are dim or dull in colour, they are only ‘freckled spots’ (AV, ‘tet- ters’ RV). This eruption, which is called pas bohak (zahar in Jerus. Targ., LXX ἀλφός), is probably the λέπρα of the older Greek physicians, the vitiligo of Celsus, and does not render the sufferer unclean. A common eczematous skin disease is called in some places in Arabia by this name still; see Forskal’s note to Niebuhr’s Arabia, 1774, 119. According to Minch, a form of vitiligo is prevalent among the Sarts of Turkestan and is called by them pycz. Those afflicted with it are segregated from the community along with the lepers, as it is regarded as contagious. Baldness and forehead baldness are distinguished from leprosy in vv.4°", unless they are complicated by the other signs of leprosy, in which case the man is to be pro- Renney utterly unclean, as the plague is in the nead,