I am, etc.
Letter XXXVII
To The Honourable Daines Barrington
Selborne, Jan. 8, 1778.
Dear Sir,
There was in this village several years ago a miserable pauper,
who, from his birth, was addicted with a leprosy, as far as we are
aware of a singular kind, since it affected only the palms of his
hands and the soles of his feet. This scaly eruption usually broke
out twice in the year, at the spring and fall; and, by peeling away,
left the skin so thin and tender that neither his hands or feet were
able to perform their functions; so that the poor object was half his
time on crutches, incapable of employ, and languishing in a
tiresome state of indolence and inactivity. His habit was lean, lank,
and cadaverous. In this sad plight he dragged on a miserable
existence, a burden to himself and his parish, which was obliged to
support him till he was relieved by death at more than thirty years
of age.
The good women, who love to account for every defect in children
by the doctrine of longing, said that his mother felt a violent
propensity for oysters, which she was unable to gratify; and that the
black rough scurf on his hands and feet were the shells of that fish.
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