degree of damp than is common in Palestine and Arabia. It is manifest, also, that a disease in the human subject caused by an acarus or a fungus would be certainly con- tagious, since the propagative cause coidd be transferred from person to person. Some physicians, indeed, assert that only such skin-diseases are contagious. Hence, perhaps, arose a further reason for marking, even in their analogues among lil'eless substances, the strictness with ■which forms of disease so arising were to be shunned.
Whatever the nature of the disorder might be, there can be no doubt, as Bauragarten has remarked (Comm. ii, 175), that in the house respect was had to its pos- sessor, since when it came to be in a good condition a cleansing or purification quite analogous to the man's was prescribed. He was thus taught to see in his ex- ternal environments a sign of what was or might be in- ternal. The later Jews appear to have had some idea of this, though others viewed it differently. Some rab- bins say that God sent this plague for the good of the Israelites into certain houses, that, they being pulled down, the treasure which the Amorites had hidden there might be discovered (Patrick on Lev. xiv, 34). But " there is good reason," adds the learned prelate, '• from these words ['I put the plague of leprosy upon a house'], to think that this plague was a supernatural stroke. Thus Aberbanel understands it : ' When he saith " I put the plague," it shows that this thing was not natural, but proceeded from the special providence and pleasure of the blessed God.' So the author of Seplier Cosri (pt. ii, § 58) : God inflicted the plague of leprosy upon houses and garments as a punishment for lesser sins, and when men continued still to midtiply transgressions, then it invaded their bodies. Maimonides will have this to be the punishment of an evil tongue, i. e. detractions and calumny, which began in the walls of the offender's house, and went no farther, but vanished if he repented of his sin ; but if he persisted in his rebellious courses, it proceeded to his household stuff; and if he still went on, invaded his garments, and at last his body" {More Niboclnm, [it. iii, cap. 47).
Finally, as to the moral design of all these enactments. " Every leper was a living sermon, a loud admonition to keep unspotted from the world. The exclusion of lepers from the camp, from the holy city, conveyed figuratively the same lesson as is done in the New Testament pas- sages (Kev. xxi, 27; Eph. v, 5). . . . It is only when we take this view of the leprosy that we account for the fact that just this disease so frequently occurs as the theocratic punishment of sin. The image of sin is best suited for reflecting it : he who is a sinner before (iod is represented as a sinner in the eyes of man also, by the circumstance that he must exhibit before men the image of sin. God took care that ordinarily the image and the thing itself were perfectly coincident, although, no doubt, there were exceptions" (Hengstenberg, Christol. on Jer. xxxi, 39). See LTxcleanness.
Literature. — Besides the above notices and canons on leprosy given in the Mischna, tract Ne(/aim ; also by INIai- monides, Yod Ila-Chezaka Hilchoth Mechosse Kajxini, cap. iv, and Hilchoth Tamaih Tsoraoth ; and by Kashi and Pashbam, Commentar. on Lev. xiii, xiv; see, among modern Avriters, Mead, Medica Sacra, in his Medical Works (Edinb. 1765), iii, 160, etc.; Michaelis, Laws of Moses (Lond. 1814), iii, 257-305; Mason i\ooA,The Study of Medicine (Lond. 1825), v, 585 sq. ; Schilling, L)e lepra Commentationes (Lugd. Bat. 1778); Hensler, J 'oni abend- Idndischen Aussatze im Mitielalter (Hamb. 1790) ; Jahn, Biblische Archdolo(/ie (Vienna, 1818), I, ii, 355 sq.; Biihr, Symbolik des Moscnschen Cultus (Heidclb. Is.'lO), ii, 459 sq., 512 sq. ; Sommer, Biblische Abharidlinnjen, vol. i (Bonn, 1846) ; I'runer, Die Krankheiten des Orients (Er- lang. 1847), p. 163 sq. ; Trusen, Die Sitten, Gebrauche tmd Krankheiten der Allen Ilebr. (Bresl. 1833) ; Saalschlitz, Das Mosai^che Recht (Berlin, 1853), i, 217 sq.; Keil, Ihmdbuch der Biblischen A rchaolofjie (Frankfort-on-the- Main, 1858), i, 270 sq., 288 sq. ; Bonorden, L^epra squa- mosa (HaL 1795) ; Lutz, Le avibus purgat. leprosi (Hal.
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IT')?"); ■\Vithof, De Uprosariis vet. Ifebrworum (Duisb. 17,')ti): Murray, Ni^tuiid hprce (Giitt. 1749); J.Thomas. Ik- lipra Gra'cor.ct JiidiFor. (Basil. 1708); Norberg, Z'e hprn A rubum (Lond. I7!l()) ; Hilan*, Observ. on the £>is- (((.sr.s- of Barbmhes (Lond. 1769), p. 326 .sq. ; Sprengel, Pathol, iii, 79-1-835; Frank, De curandis homin. morUg, I. ii, 476 ; Scbnurrer, in the Halle Encyhlop. vi, 451 sq. ; Itiist. llandb. d. Chirurij. ii, 581 sq. ; Roussille-Chamseru. Ui rlitrches sur le veritable Caractere de la Lepre des I/ebiiii.T, and Relation Chirurr/. de VArviee de VOi'ient (Paris, 1804); Cazcnave and Hchedel, yl i/%« Pratique des Maladies de la Peau ; Aretreus, Morb, Chron. ii, 13 ; Fracastorius, De Moi-bis Contagiosis ; Johajines Manar- dus, Epist. Medic, vii, 2, and to iv, 3, 3, § 1 ; Avicenna, De Medic, v, 28, § 19; also Dr. Sim in tlie North Amer- ican Chirm-gical Review, Sept. 1859, p. 876 ; Hecker, Die Elephantiasis oder Lep)ra Arabica (Lchr, 1858) ; also the monographs cited by Volbeding, Index, p. 42 ; and by Hase, Leben Jcsii, p. 137. The ancient authorities are Hippocrates, Proi-rhetica, lib. xii, ap. fin. ; Galen, Expli- catio Une/uarum Hippocratis, and De A rt. Curat, lib, ii ; Cclsus. De Medic, v, 28, § 19. See Disease.