The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-18
LEPROSY DID NOT
 START IN EGYPT
From the New York Times.

From the New York Times
 While the subject of mummifaction ar rests the attention chiefly because 1t gives good deal of information con- cerning the habits and customs of the ancient Egyptians, comparatively few persons are aware that the foundations of medical knowledge resulted from the custom of embalming the dead. More over. from the studies of these ''patho- logical documents" mummes-now In progress. it has been possible to learn something of the diseases which carried off great many persons some thou sands of years ago. It has been dis covered, also. that there was no leprosy in old Egypt
 Prof. c. Elliot Smith of Manchester uni versity delivered the Arris and Gale lec- ture this year. choosing for his subject the history of mummification He point ed out the many ways in which the GUS tom of emhalming in Egypt has in- fluenced the development of medical science.
 "The sacred Jewish and Christian lit- erature." says The Medical Record com menting on this lecture, kept alive in Europe the ancient traditions handed down by the Greeks, Romans and Gauls. who gained their knowledge after Ptole- maic Greece became imbued with Egyp- tian beliefs and customs. The Crusaders, too, brought back from the Orient much eastern knowledge. including that con corning munmification.
 According to Sir Thomas Browne. 1t was under the influence of this renais- sance that in Europe Mummy became merchandise. Nirzaim cured wounds, and Pharaoh was sold for balsams Royalty and persons of high rank in Europe about this time began to be embalmed- Edward I. of England for instance. Elliot Smith says, however. that the chief service rendered by the ancient Egyptian embalmers was that the long duration of the practice of mummification in Egypt has familiarized the Egyptians with the idea of cutting the body and as the result Greek anatomists of the Ptolemaic age were permitted to do In Egypt what the force of public opinion forbade in Europe, to carry on system attic dissection of the human body, and thus lay the solid foundation of an in- innate acquaintance with its structure, npon which the whole edifice of medical knowledge has been and is being built" In another article in The Medical Rec | ord the writer discusses a recent meeting of the Leipzig Medical society. He says:
 
 ancient pathology as revealed by house. hold utinsels and other commemorative preserved in stone or clay, and in the l progress of our knowledge of actual hu- man survivals-bones mummies, etc. His work is largely confined to Egypt and | Asia Minor.
 "Osteoarthritis of a deforming charac- ter seems to have been very common, and was, perhaps. connected with the rise and fall of the Nile, which necessitated much wading. etc. The same affection is common to day. Tuberculosis bone and joint disease seems to have been com mon. Although dental carries per SC was evidently rare, ulcerated teeth were often in evidence. No evidence whatever Is found of leprosy in old Egypt, a most striking fact. for the disease is believe by many to have originated there.
 "The absence of any traces of It would seem to be eohf1rmatory of the opinion that the leprosv of the Bible was a total ly different disease from the affection called by that name today"