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As in the eucharistical bread and wine, filled with Divine influences, we are said to eat the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ; so in the meat and drink offering, and in the flesh and blood of grapes, when consecrated under the zodiacal influence of good animal-appearing societies in the spiritual world, the Jews were said to cat the flesh and pour out the blood of lambs, rams, calves, bulls, and goats.

In allusion to such animal appearances under the constellations and planets, "the front and doors of the pagodas on the coast of Coromandel are ornamented with figures of various kinds, which have a symbolical meaning, and represent the Vahana, or riding animals of the gods."

Ibid. p. 380.

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2300. [1] In India, a woman for a certain time after her delivery is considered as unclean; and must remain a stated period, differing according to her caste, in a separate apartment, in order that the other inhabitants of the house may not render themselves impure, contrary to the strict prohibition of their religion.

BARTOLOMEO, by Johnston, p. 255.

2301. [2.] Among the Malabar Indians, it is esteemed unworthy of a man to inake use of, 1st, a sick wounan; 2d, one who has her monthly purifications; 3d, one who is pregnant; 4th, one who has been divorced; 5th, one who has been proscribed, or excluded from her caste; 6th, one who has no shame; 7th, one who is afraid of the mysteries of love.

Ibid. p. 282.

2302. [4.] It never seems to have entered the heads of the legislators or people of Hindostun, that any thing na

2307. [Lev. xiii. 2.] Moses mentions three sorts of leprosy; In 1. men; 2. houses; and 3. clothes.

CALMET.

This dreadful disorder has its name leprosy from a Greek word which signifies a scale, because in this disease the body was often covered with thin white scales, so as to give it the appearance of snow. Hence it is said of the hand of Moses, Exod. iv. 6, that it was leprous as snow; and of Miriam, Num. xii. 10, that she became leprous, as white as snow; and of Gehazi, 2 Kings v. 27, that being judicially struck with the disease of Naaman, he went out of Elisha's presence a leper, as white as snow. 2 Chron. xxvi. 20.

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2309. [Lev. xiii. 2.] M. PEYSSONEL, a physician, who was sent by the court of France to Guadaloupe to enquire into the nature of the leprosy that had broken out in that island, writes as follows, on the 3d. February, 1759, " It is now about 25 or 30 years, since a singular disease ap peared on many of the inhabitants of this island. commencement is imperceptible. There appear only some few spots on the skin, which, in the Whites, are of a blackish red color, and in the Blacks, of a copper-red. At first, they are attended neither with pain, nor any sort of inconvenience; but no means whatever will remove them. The disease imperceptibly increases, and continues for many years to manifest itself more and more. The spots become larger, and spread over the skin of the whole body indiscriminately sometimes a little elevated, though flat. When the disease advances, the upper part of the nose swells, the nostrils become enlarged, and the nose itself soft. Tumors appear on the jaws; the eye-brows swell; the ears become thick; the points of the fingers, as also the feet and toes, swell; the nails become scaly; the joints of the hands and feet separate, and drop off. On the palms of the hands, and on the soles of the feet, appear deep dry ulcers, which increase rapidly, and then disappear again. During the whole period of the disorder, those affected with it, experience no obstructions in what are called the Naturalia. They eat and drink as usual; and even when their fingers and toes mortify, the loss of the mortified part is the only consequence that ensues; for the wound heals of itself without any medical treatment or application. When, however, the unfortunate wretches come to the last period of the disease, they are hideously disfigured, and falling in pieces, excite the greatest compassion. It has been remarked, he adds, that this horrible disorder has, besides, some very lamentable properties; as, in the first place, that it is hereditary (not, however, perpetually so, but for three or four generations): secondly, that it is infectious, being propagated by coition, and even by long-continued intercourse: thirdly, that it is incurable, or at least no means of cure have hitherto been discovered." See No. 2028, 787. See Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. pp. 258, 265.

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2312. [Lev. xiii. 25.] The hair is a small animalcule, visible to the naked eye. It is visible in the matter expeetorated in a scrofulous consumption is transferrable to other persons by contact; will eat garments, and the mortar of houses. From certain facts, it should appear, that after a stated time, this animalcule takes wing, and passes as a blue mist over whole countries, at the rate of about three German miles a-day, spreading universal desolation throughout its awful sweep. In this latter state, it constitutes a pestilence communicated from the air directly into the lungs. As such, it has arisen from Graves opened in Churches, and killed numbers who attended re-interments in such graves, and divine service afterwards in such contaminated Churches. With accounts of these things, all history abounds. Verse 26. Hence the Black Fever, or common Plague.

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2313. [ 30.] Hence the Yellow Fever, or late Plague of America. In the year 1793, the yellow fever, which made such terrible ravages in Philadelphia, broke out in Water-street, where much filth and dirt is suffered to remain on the pavement, and where there are so many waste houses, that it is really dreadful to pass through the street.

In 1794 this fever appeared at Baltimore; in 1795, at New York and Norfolk; and again at New York, 1796. — At Philadelphia, in about three months, no less than four thousand inhabitants were swept off by this dreadful malady; a namber, amounting to about one tenth of the whole, Baltimore and New York did not suffer so severely; but at Norfolk, which is computed to contain about three tbousand people, no less than five hundred fell victims to it. — In America, dirt, heat and putridity, are considered as its principal causes.

WELD's Travels through N. America, vol. i. pp. 6, 174.

2314. There is something very singular in the constitution of negroes, which renders them not liable to the yellow fever; for, though many of them were as much exposed as the nurses to this infection, yet, says Dr. LINING, I never knew an instance of this fever amongst them. See his Essays and Observations, vol. ii. p. 407.

2315. [38, 39.] If a man or a woman have white spots on the skin, and the priest see that the color of these spots is faint and pale; it is, in this case, the Bohak that has broken out on their skin, and they are clean. — A person thus attacked with Bohak was not declared unclean, because that cutaneous disorder, as appears from the following extracts, is quite harmless. Bohak, says NIEBUHR, is neither infectious nor dangerous. He saw a black boy at Mocha, who, attacked with this sort of leprosy, had white spots bere and there on his body; and in whose cure sulphur

had been for some time applied with considerable effect, though it had not then, he says, altogether removed the disease. But, as a case completely successful, he quotes from the posthumous papers of Dr. Forskal, what had been there written respecting the Bohak-leprosy in a Jew at Mocha. "The spots in this disease," says the Doctor, are of unequal size. They have no shining appearance; nor are they perceptibly elevated above the skin; and they do not change the color of the hair. Their color is an obscure white, or somewhat reddish. The rest of the skin of this patient was blacker than that of the people of the country is in general; but the spots were not so white as the skin of an European, when not suu-burnt. The spots, in this species of leprosy, do not appear on the hands, nor about the navel, but on the neck and face; not, however, on that part of the head where the hair grows very thick. They gradually spread, and continue sometimes only about two months; but in some cases indeed, as long as two years, and then disappear, by degrees, of themselves. This disorder is neither infectious nor hereditary, nor does it occasion any inconvenience."

See Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. p. 283.

2316. [Lev. xiii. 46.] At Constantinople, says Dr. MACKENZIE, the plague spreads by contact only, without communicating any malignancy to the ambient air. Otherwise very few could escape: whereas we found this last time (in 1751), and on all such occasions, that whoever kept their doors shut, ran no risk, even if the plague were in the next house; and the contact was easily traced in all the accidents which happened among the Franks.

Abr. Phil. Trans. vol. x. p. 242.

2317. [47-59.] It is a singular circumstance that the animalcules which convey pestilential infection, do not lodge in wood, metal, or stone, but in wool, cotton, silk; and, to use an oriental expression, in every thing bearing the appearance of a thread.

2318.

St. PIERRE'S Harmonies of Nature, vol. ii. p. 124.

With regard to woollen articles, this Mosaic kind of leprosy" proceeds from what is called dead wool, that is, the wool of sheep that have died by disease (not wool shorn from the healthy animals, which alone ought to be used). Such dead or fallen wool, if the disease have been but of short duration, is not altogether useless; but in a sheep that has been long diseased, it becomes extremely bad, and loses the points: in cousequence, the stuffs made of it not only become very soon bare, but full first of little depressions, and then of holes. Besides, according to the established usage of honest manufacturers, it is unfair to fabricate dead wool into any article worn by man; because vermin are so apt to establish themselves in it, particularly when it

is worn close to the body, and warmed thereby. We hence see how the disease may appear sometimes only in the warp, and sometimes only in the woof, from good wool being used for the one, and dead wool for the other. And now that the origin of the evil has been traced in wool, those who are acquainted with the manufacture or sale of linen, leather, and furriery, on a large scale, will find no great difficulty in carrying on the investigation farther (respecting tainted flax, cotton, or skins). See Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. pp. 290-293.

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2321. [Lev. xiv. 7.] The heathens had vessels placed at the gates of their temples filled with water, which they called lustral or holy. In this water such as intended to go into the temple, washed their hands by way of purification. They likewise sprinkled it on the assembly to cleanse them from their impurities. An exclusion from the use and benefit of this lustral water, was looked on by the Greeks as a kind of excommunication. Univer. Hist. vol. xii. p. 453.

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The presence of lime is necessary to the natural production of saltpetre; and wherever this saline efflorescence occurs, the surface of the stone becomes permanently discoloured, as if from the effect of damp. It appears indifferently on the surface of the stones composing a wall, and of the mortar by which those stones are cemented; and it is sometimes observable on the surface of studded partitions, consisting entirely of wood-work plastered over with mortar or stucco: but it is a fact established by invariable experience, that this efflorescence takes place only where the exterior of the wall, on which it is formed, is either exposed to the direct influence of the weather, or is in contact with the adjacent ground. See Phil. Trans. of R. S. for 1814, part ii. p. 508, &c.

1. What we usually term the saltpetre that appears on walls, has much the same symptoms as this house-leprosy, and is at the same time attended with such noxious effects as require the attention of a well-regulated police.

See Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. p. 294.

2324. [Lev. xiv. 34.] In Bern, the people complain of a disease that in au especial manner attacks sand-stone, so as to make it exfoliate, and become as it were cancerous. This they ascribe to the saltpetre contained in the stone. It is however, properly speaking, either an acid of nitre, an acid of sea-salt, or a vitriolic acid and magnesia, which, efflorescing on the stones or walls of different kinds of buildings, can, by the addition of a fixed alkali, be made into saltpetre. By the effects of this efflorescence, the walls become mouldy; the lime blisters and falls off; the very stones corrode away entirely; books and other articles, that cannot bear dampness and acids, suffer by their contiguity, and are eventually spoiled; besides, the apartments where it predominates become exceedingly pernicious to health, often causing the premature death of such as sleep close to the wall. The consideration of these circumstances will render the ordinances of this chapter easily intelligible. Their object was to check the evil in the very bud; to extirpate it while it was yet extirpable, by making every one, from the loss to which it would subject him, careful to prevent his house from becoming affected with leprosy, which he could easily do, where the houses had no damp stone cellars below ground; and thus also, to place not only himself in perfect security, but his neighbours also, who might very reasonably dread having their houses contaminated by the infection. Ibid. Art. 211.

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2326. [Lev. xiv. 44. a fretting leprosy] These guawing, these troublesome animalcules, find their well-being in the slovenliness which infects our bodies or our apartments, and which may be the death of ourselves. The attacks of such enemies then, are wholesome warnings of the danger we are in; and by being perpetually in pursuit of them, we either dissipate or prevent that uncleanliness which would be more fatal to us than they are.

Abbe PLUCHE'S Hist. of the Heav. vol. ii. p. 145.

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2328. [Lev. xv. 2, 3.] The celebrated Astruc, who published in 1753, after describing the different periods, which the disease brought from America has kept, and the mitigation of its violence in the course of each of them, at last concludes with this idea, that if no fresh infection were transported into Europe from America itself, the probability is, that the disease would become more and more mild, and at length entirely disappear. What this great physician looks forward to as probable, may, perhaps, have actually taken place in the interval between Moses and Hippocrates; for they were, at least, ten centuries asunder. The disease in question might have been brought into Egypt from the south-west part of Africa; it might have become so much to be no more Lues venerea, mildened, as but merely Gonorrhea; and in this state brought by the Israelites out of Egypt into Asia. But, on the supposition that the Gonorrhoea virulenta was not known in the time of Moses, the Gonorrhoea benigna is a disorder (attendant on weak habits) which, though not painful, is nevertheless extremely pernicious, as it gradually undermines the constitution, and incapacitates for the propagation of the species.

See Smith's MICHAELIS, vol. iii. pp. 308, 312.

2329. [ 4-12.] When physicians maintain that the Lues is a disease uot propagated by beds, they speak of our beds, that are on every occasion furnished with clean linen; and would never advise any one to sleep in the bed of a person infected with that disease, unless the bed were so furnished. But we must never think of our abundance of linen, in speaking of Eastern countries; where even at this day it is a luxury attainable only by the most opulent. We must, on the contrary, rather figure to ourselves, the universal use, first, of woollen cloth, which is much more apt to catch and to lodge infection; and remember next, that the very same piece (the hyke) is always used, without being

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2340. The skins (of the White Muscat Grape of Alexandria) are thick, and the flesh, or pulp, hard, and not very juicy, but of a most exquisite flavor.

The skin of the Black Damascus is thin, and the flesh delicate, rich, juicy, and of an exquisite flavor.

The Aleppo Grape is middle-sized and roundish, with a thin skin, and delicate juicy flesh.

The skin of the Black Muscadel is thin, with a delicate juicy flesh.

The skin of the Red Muscadel is thick, and the flesh hard, something like the raisin grape. This is one of the latest

grapes.

The berries of the Red Hamburgh, or Gibraltar Grape, have thin skins and juicy delicate flesh.

The White Hamburgh, or Portugal Grape, has a thick skin and hard flesh.

The skin of the Malvoise, or Blue Tokay, is thin and the flesh delicate, replete with a vinous juice.

The skin of the Genuine Tokay is thin and flesh delicate, abounding with a very agreeable juice.

The berry of the White Muscadine, or Chasselas, has a thin skin, and delicate juicy flesh.

The flesh of the Black Muscadine is not so delicate and juicy as the former.

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