* if the leprosy.
It may seem strange that the partial leper should be
pronounced unclean, and the person totally covered with the
disease clean. This was probably owing to a different
species or stage of the disease; the partial being
contagious, the total not. That there are two different
species, or degrees, of the disease described here, is
sufficiently evident: in one, the person was all covered
with a white enamelled scurf; in the other, there was a quick
raw flesh in the risings. On this account, the one was
deemed unclean, or contagious, the other not; for contact
with the quick raw flesh would be more likely to communicate
the disease, than the touch of the hard dry scurf. The ichor
proceeding from the former, when brought into contact with
the flesh of another, would soon be taken into constitution
by means of the absorbent vessels; but where the surface was
perfectly dry; the absorbent vessels of another, coming in
contact with the diseased man, could imbibe nothing, and
there was consequently but little or no danger of infection.
This is the learned Dr. Mead's view of the subject; who thus
accounts for the circumstances mentioned in the text.
* he is clean.
Isa 64:6 Joh 9:41
|