I have not hitherto been able to find any evidence showing to whom the examination and seclusion of lepers was, in olden times, entrusted in England; or to trace out in that kingdom any special laws relative to this subject. There exist, however, upon record, in reference to one English case in the fifteenth century, some details that are particularly interesting in regard to the present point of our inquiry. The details in question have been preserved in Rymer’s _Fœdera_. The case to which they refer appears to have been brought under the cognisance of the Crown by the neighbours of the suspected female, in consequence of her being alleged to be affected with leprosy, and yet refusing to seclude herself, as was the usual custom, from intercourse with society in consequence of it. The reigning monarch, Edward IV., issued, in 1468, a Chancery warrant for the proper medical examination of this supposed case of the disease. The royal warrant, and the medical certificate which it called forth, have both been preserved by Rymer. I append a translation of these curious documents, as illustrative both of the general dread then still entertained of the malady, and of the minute care which, in this country, was occasionally taken, in order that a just and accurate judgment might be arrived at in cases of doubt and difficulty. The documents are entered by Rymer under the title of “Medicorum Regis, super morbo Lepræ, Certificatio.” They proceed as follows:— “To the most Excellent and most Serene Prince and Lord in Christ, Edward, by the Grace of God, King of England and France, and Lord of Ireland, We, William Hatteclyff, Roger Marshall, and Dominus de Serego, Doctors of Arts and Medicine, your physicians, and sworn to watch over the health of your Person, send due Reverence with humility and worship:— “Whereas a Petition was made to You in Your Court of Chancery, with regard to removing _Johanna Nightingale_, of Brentwoode, in the County of Essex, from general intercourse with mankind (_a communi hominum consortio_), because it was presumed by some of her neighbours that she was infected by the foul contact of Leprosy, and was, in fact, herself a Leper: Upon which Your writ was then prepared, and afterwards directed to the Sheriff of the said county, in these words:—