Note 501 — ABU AL-HASAN AND ABU JA’AFAR THE LEPER.[501]

Arabs note two kinds of leprosy, “Bahak” or “Baras” the common or white, and “Juzám” the black leprosy; the leprosy of the joints, mal rouge. Both are attributed to undue diet as eating fish and drinking milk; and both are treated with tonics, especially arsenic. Leprosy is regarded by Moslems as a Scriptural malady on account of its prevalence amongst the Israelites who, as Manetho tells us, were expelled from Egypt because they infected and polluted the population. In mediæval Christendom an idea prevailed that the Saviour was a leper; hence the term “morbus sacer”; the honours paid to the sufferers by certain Saints and the Papal address (Clement III. A.D. 1189) dilectis filiis leprosis. (Farrar’s Life of Christ, i. 149.) For the “disgusting and impetuous lust” caused by leprosy, see Sonnini (p. 560) who visited the lepers at Canea in Candia. He is one of many who describes this symptom; but in the Brazil, where the foul malady still prevails, I never heard of it.