Medieval Cures for Leprosy

Medieval medical knowledge is a complex area in the history of medicine because of the often superstitious faith-based nostrums, panaceas or elixirs administered by priests and taught in the universities in the 14th and 15th centuries. There were several treatments for the symptoms of leprosy (caused by Mycobacterium leprae), including mercury and viper's flesh, but no known cure. The only remedy was to isolate the victim completely, leading to the founding of the infamous leper hospitals or colonies where sufferers were condemned to live, deprived of any previous rights or privileges they may have enjoyed.

Symptoms of Leprosy

• During the Middle Ages, it is likely that other conditions were misdiagnosed as leprosy (also now referred to as Hansen's disease). If left untreated, this bacterial infection causes skin lesions to appear--giving the disease its most familiar symptom for Medieval sufferers. Since the bacteria can remain dormant for many years or become apparent within months of exposure, there was no logical means of early detection, and no way to differentiate between what is now recognized as tuberculoid (paucibacillary) and lepromatous (multibacillary) leprosy. Furthermore, symptoms could (and still can) vary depending on the type of leprosy, but the lepromatous strain includes a wide variety of indications such as rashes on the face and extremities, thickened skin on the face, bloody nose, and swelling of the lymph nodes in the groin or armpits. Sufferers could also lose fingers or toes, or become blind due to complications to the condition itself.

Treatments

• The founding of leper colonies in the 13th century may well have been more for the benefit of society rather than the sufferers of the disease. Isolating the victims served to curtail the spread of the bacteria, nothing more. Since families were divided and couples separated by the diagnosis of leprosy, this was a dire fate. Spouses could choose to accompany the victim or apply for a divorce (one of the rare instances recognized by the church as grounds for one). The hospitals were dependent on public donations and charitable service rendered wherever possible.

  Treatments were attempted. Theriac, a drug made with viper's flesh and other ingredients, is praised in the 12th-century "Antidotarium Nicolai" as being effective. The discovery of mercury in the bones of a significant number of medieval remains suggests that it was used for medicinal purposes--probably not just for cases of leprosy.