[201] Since writing the above, I have met with the following interesting notice in the still earlier voyage of Martin to St. Kilda, the most westerly island of the Hebrides. Describing his visit to St. Kilda, in 1697, he states, “Some thirteen years ago, the Leprosy broke amongst the inhabitants, and some of their numbers died of it. There are two families at present labouring under the disease. The symptoms of it are, their feet begin to fail; their appetite declining; their faces becoming too red, and breaking out in pimples; a hoarseness, and their hair falling off from their heads; the crown (?) of it exulcerates and blisters; and, lastly, their beards grow thinner than ordinary.”—_Voyage to St. Kilda_ (first published in 1698), p. 40 of edition of 1749. [202] _MS. Medical Annotations_, vol. iii. p. 226. [203] “The Moderator proposed to the session, that, considering that a Gracious Providence had not only delivered the Island and country from the burden and necessity of maintaining and otherwise providing for the poor Lepers, formerly in this Island, but had also put a stop to the spreading of that unclean and infectious disease, so that there is no appearance of the symptoms thereof in any person now in this place, the Session should therefore ordain a day to be set apart for solemn thanksgiving for so great a deliverance throughout this ministry excepting Fowla, which we can have no access to probably to inform. The Session having heard the Moderator’s proposal, were cordially satisfied therewith, and did agree unanimously that a day be set apart for solemn thanksgiving on the above account throughout the bounds of the ministry, excepting Fowla, as above said.” (Extracts from the MS. Session Register of Walls, under date of 17th March 1742.) The 19th May 1742 was held as the day of thanksgiving, as appears from a subsequent entry. [204] _Færoæ et Færoa Reserata_ (London, 1659), pp. 310, 311. [205] Mackenzie’s _Travels in Iceland during the summer of the year 1810_; or _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal_, vol. viii. pp. 202, 203. [206] Von Troil’s _Letters on Iceland_, p. 123; Barrow’s _Visit to Iceland in the summer of 1834_, pp. 289 and 294. [207] Pontoppidan’s _Natural History of Norway_, containing an account of its Climate, etc. etc. (London translation, 1755), pp. 261, 262. [208] See Wellhaven’s account, extracted from the _Transactions of the Stockholm Society_, vol. iii. pp. 188-200, into Hunefeld’s “Essay on Radesyge,” pp. 38-56. [209] See pp. 110-117 of the excerpta in Hensler’s learned work, _Vom Abenländischen Aufsatze im Mittelalter_. (Hamburg, 1790.)