Greeks (_Elephantiasis Græcorum_), the juzam or leprosy of the Arabian translators (_Lepra Arabum_), the tuberculous leprosy of modern European authors (_Lepra tuberculosa_, _Lepra nodosa_), and the simple leprosy (_Lepra_) of most authors of the middle ages,[157]—all signify that same specific and individual disease, whose distinctive characters we have already traced from Bateman and Schedel, and from Cullen and Good. SPECIFIC CHARACTER OF THE LEPROSY WHICH PREVAILED DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. Having premised the preceding tedious but necessary digression upon the nomenclature of leprosy, we now proceed to consider the question whether the particular form of disease that prevailed on the Continent and in Great Britain during the middle ages, and for the victims of which so many hospitals were built, and so many laws enacted, answered or not, in its nosological characters, to the _Elephantiasis Græcorum_, _Lepra Arabum_ or Arabian leprosy, such as we have found that malady depicted in the standards already referred to, and such as it is known to prevail at the present day in different localities in the new and old world, that I shall afterwards take occasion to specify. We begin our inquiry into the nature of the disease, by considering the characters of the leprosy as it was seen prevailing, almost epidemically, in the middle ages. 1. _Upon the Continent of Europe._—To obtain a solution of this part of our problem, let us turn to the works of the medical authors of these early times, and endeavour to ascertain from them the nature of the disease which they denominated leprosy. Various minute descriptions of leprosy (lepra) have been left us in the writings of different European physicians and surgeons of the middle ages, who had an opportunity of studying the disease in different kingdoms upon the Continent during the period of its actual prevalence. Amongst others we may especially refer to the accounts of it, written during the thirteenth century, by the monk Theodoric,[158] afterwards a distinguished surgeon of Bologna; by the celebrated Lanfranc, who was first a practitioner in Milan,[159] and subsequently in Paris; and by Professor Arnold Bachuone,[160] of Barcelona, reputed in his day the greatest physician in Spain. Valescus de Taranta,[161] a physician of Montpellier; Bernhard Gordon,[162] Professor of Medicine in the same city; the famous French Surgeon, Guy de Chauliac;[163]—Vitalis de Furno,[164] Cardinal of Albany; and Petrus de Argelata,[165] a practitioner of Bologna, have each left us descriptions of leprosy drawn up during the fourteenth century; and during the two succeeding centuries, we have more or less accurate accounts of the disease given by Professors Montagnana[166] of Padua and Matthew Ferrari de Gradi[167] of Pavia, by Ambrose Paré,[168] Joannes Fernelius,[169] Palmarius,[170] Hildanus[171] and various others.[172]