ABSTRACT
Besides the inculcation of general hygiene, 18th century medicine waged a definite campaign against disease by the use of the twin methods of disinfection and segregation. Closely related, both in practice and theory, to the use of antiseptics was the vigorous segregation of infected persons, by quarantine laws and by the provision of special institutions for persons suffering from certain infectious illnesses. The importance of leprosy from the public health aspect lies in its influence on the development of preventive medicine, since it was the first disease in respect of which vigorous segregation was practised. Leprosy is a very repulsive disease and it is not surprising that, in the days when all illness was ascribed to the displeasure of Heaven, the leper was considered in a peculiar degree accursed of God. Plagues and pestilences showed the Almighty's displeasure with a whole community but the slow, agony of leprosy implied personal moral guilt.
