Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/490

 470 L E P L E K varieties, the spotted (Lepra maculosa) and the nodular (Lepra tuber culosa). The two kinds are found side by side in the same population, and sometimes in the same person. The maculae arise in the place of former recurrent spots, and are often raised indurations ; when the pigmentation deepens, the disease is L. maculosa nigra ; when the spots become blanched, it is L. maculosa alba or white leprosy. Anaesthesia, which very generally goes with the leprous process, is especially marked in the blanched spots, hence the name L. ansesthetica. Anaesthetic spots are apt to have bullte forming on them (pemphigus leprosus), their periodical eruption being attended with fever. The nodules (characteristic of the other form) generally arise also in the situation of old blotches ; they are at first small scattered points, but they grow and coalesce to the size of lentils, hazel nuts, or walnuts. While the maculae of leprosy may occur in any part, the nodules are most apt to form on the face (brows, eyelids, ears, wings of the nose, lips, cheeks), causing thickening of all the features (Leontiasis,Satyriasis); but they often occur on the hands and feet, and sometimes over the whole body. The nodules, from being exposed to the weather and to injuries, often ulcerate, and the ulcers, like those of syphilis and lupus, tend to spread. Maculae, especially on the limbs, are liable to slighter ulcerations followed by incrustation. Deep ulceration and necrosis occur at the joints of the fingers and toes, which may drop off joint by joint, leaving a well-healed stump (L. mutilans). Certain mucous membranes thicken, become nodulated, and ulcerate, viz., the conjunctiva corner (causing pannus leprosus), and the lining of the mouth, nose, throat, and larynx (causing hoarseness). The external groups of lymphatic glands enlarge ; leprous affections of the viscera also are described. The peripheral nerves are the subject of thickenings and degenerations like those in the skin. The new-formed tissue in all situations is granulation-like, as in syphilis and lupus ; and leprosy, with those two diseases, is treated of by Virchow under the head of granuloma. By some the nervous lesions (including an alleged affection of the spinal cord) are taken to be primary, while the changes in the skin and other parts (with anaesthesia) are held to be secondary and due to disordered innervation. Leprosy has been claimed as one of the diseases caused by parasites, on several occasions by old writers in the gross sense, and recently by observers who have found innumerable minute bacillus-rods within the cells of the leprous new growth. The essential cause of leprosy is unknown. It probably arose in the Delta and valley of the Nile in prehistoric times, and under similar climatic and telluric conditions in other (chiefly inter- tropical) countries ; and the most memorable fact in its history is its rise and subsidence as an epidemic disease in Europe. It is now endemic (chiefly but not exclusively) among peoples who inhabit the sea-coast or the estuaries of rivers, who live much on fish (often putrid), and who inter marry closely. The old opinion that leprosy is contagious is now generally discredited. Literature. For history and geographical distribution, see Hirsch, HandbucJi dcr historisch-gcographiscJien Pathologic, 1st eel., Erlangen, 1860(with exhaustive literature). For pathology, Virchow, Die krarikhaflen Geschwillste, Berlin, 1863-67, vol. ii. For clinical histories, R. Liveing, ElcpJwnl.iasis Greecorum or True Leprosy, London, 1873, chap. iv. For mediaeval leprosy in Germany, y ivco, in. Virchow sArchiv, fi ve articles, vols. xvii i.-xx., 1860-61 ; in the Netherlands, Israels, in Ncderl. TijdscTir. voor Gcnccskundc, vol. i., 1857; in Britain, .1. Y. Simpson, Edin. Mod. and Simj. Journ., three articles, vols. Ixvi. and Ixvii., 1846-47. Treatises on modern leprosy in particular localities : Danielssen and Boeck (Norway), Traitedela Spcdalskhcd, with atlasof twenty-four coloured plates, Paris, 1848 ; A. F. Anderson, Leprosy as met, with in the Straits Settlements, coloured photographs with explanatory notes, London, 1872 ; H. Vandyke Carter (Bombay), On Leprosy and Eh- phantiasis, with coloured plates, London, 1874 ; Hillis, Leprosy in British Guiana, an account of West Indian leprosy, with twenty- I two coloured plates, London, 1882. See also the dermatologica! works of Hebra, Erasmus Wilson, Bazin, and Hutchinson. An im portant early work is that of P. G. Hensler, Vom abendliindischcn Aussatzc im Mittclaltcr, Hamburg, 1790. (C. C.) LEPTIS, now LEBDA, the leading city of the ancient Tripolis, Northern Africa, extensive ruins of which exist on the coast, about 50 miles east of Tripoli. Leptis Magna, as it is usually called to distinguish it from Leptis Parva (now Lemta) in Byzacium, was a Phoenician colony, pro bably superimposed on an old Libyan settlement. The old town, of which the massive quays and docks are still extant, is similar to Carthage in position and plan, occupying a tongue of land to the west of the harbour. The new town, whose simple appellation Neapolis almost threatened the disuse of the name Leptis, is much more extensive; but the ruins belong to the later period of the Roman empire. Septimius Severus was a native of the place ; and he not only bestowed upon it the jus Italicum, but enriched it with many costly buildings, the most remarkable being the palatium dedicated fortunes su& (Procopius). Ammi- anus mentions that Leptis was laid waste by the Austurians (a Libyan tribe) in 370 ; and, though Justinian enclosed a part of the city with new walls and made it the military seat of the province of Tripolis, it never recovered its pro sperity, and from the time of the Arab conquest it disap pears from history. The local inscriptions are Greek, Latin, and Punic. See Travels of All Bey (by Badia y Lablich) ; Barth, Wanderunyen, &c. ; and Corpus Inscr. Lat., viii. LERIDA, one of the forty-nine provinces of Spain, is bounded on the X. by France (and the &quot; republic &quot; of Andorra), on the E. by Gerona and Barcelona, on the S. by Tarragona, and on the W. by Saragossa and Huesca, and has an area of 4772 square miles, with a population (in 1877) of 285,297. It is almost entirely mountainous, and partakes of the features common to the whole southern slope of the Pyrenees. The principal river is the Segre, a tributary of the Ebro. The province has five cities, Le&amp;gt;ida, Balaguer (Bergusia), Cervera, Seo de Urgel, and Solsona, but only the first-mentioned of these has a population exceeding 5000; the next largest (Balaguer) in 1877 had only 4742. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in pastoral occupations. LERIDA, the capital of the above province, and in point of numbers and prosperity the second city in Catalonia, is situated on the right bank of the Segre, crossed there by a handsome stone bridge. The distances by rail from Saragossa and Barcelona respectively are 114 and 113 miles. The old cathedral, on the top of an eminence overlooking the town, was begun in 1203 and consecrated in 1278; it is a Gothic building of merit in some respects, but is rapidly going to decay, having never been used for religious purposes since 1707. The actual cathedral is a Grseco-Roman structure dating only from 1749. The town has no other feature of interest. There are manufactures of glass, leather, paper, and of woollen and cotton goods, and a considerable trade in the timber brought down from the Pyrenees by the Segre. Population in 1877, 20,369. Lerida is the Ilerda of the Romans, and was the capital of the people whom they called Ilerdenses (Pliny) or llergetes (Ptolemy). By situation the key of Catalonia and Aragon, it was from a very early period an important military station. In the Punic wars it sided with the Carthaginians and suffered much from the Roman arms. In its immediate neighbourhood Ilanno was defeated by Scipio in 216 B.C., and it afterwards became famous as the scene of Caesar s arduous struggle with Pompey s generals Afranius and Petreius in the first year of the civil war (49 B.C.). It was already a municipium in the time of Augustus, and enjoyed great prosperity under later emperors. Under the Goths it became an episcopal see, and at least one ecclesiastical council is recorded to have met there (in 546). Under the Saracens Lareda became one of the principal cities of the province of Saragossa ; it became tributary to the Franks in 793, but was reconquered in 797. In 1149 it fell into the hands of Don Ramon Berenguer IV., last count of Barcelona. In modern times it has come through numerous sieges, having been