declared that if you take the heel-bone of an ass and bind it upon
the foot of the patient, he is cured, provided that you take the right
bone for the right foot, and conversely, and he swore this was true.
Torror also said that if the right foot of a turtle is placed upon the
right foot of a patient suffering from the gout, and conversely, he
will be cured."

Gilbert's discussion of leprosy (_De lepra_, f. 336 d) covers twenty
pages and, according to Sprengel, is "almost the first correct
description of this disease in the Christian West." Freind says this
chapter is copied chiefly _from_ Theodorius of Cervia. See page 3
ante. If, however, I am correct in my conjecture that the Compendium
was written about the year 1240, the copying must have been done _by_
Theodorius, whose "Chirurgia" did not appear until 1266.

Leprosy is defined as a malignant disease due to the dispersion of
black bile throughout the whole body, corrupting both the constitution
(_complexionem_) and the form of its members. Sometimes, too, it
occasions a solution of continuity and the loss of members.

The disease is sometimes congenital, arising from conception during
the menstrual period. For the corrupt blood within the maternal
body, which forms the nourishment of the fetus, leads likewise to the
corruption of the latter. Sometimes the disease is the result of a
corrupt diet, or of foul air, or of the breath or aspect of another
leper. Avicenna tells us that eating fish and milk at the same meal
will occasion the same result. Infected pork and similar articles of
diet may likewise produce the disease. Cohabitation with a woman who
has previously had commerce with a leper may also produce infection.