If a man or woman hath a plague upon the head or the beard— Maimonides tells us, that in this sort of leprosy the hair on the head or beard fell off by the roots, and the place of the hair remained bare. Bishop Patrick observes, that this seems to have been that kind of disease which, Pliny says, came into Italy in the middle of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, and was called mentagra, because it commonly began in the chin, and was so loathsome, that any death was preferable to it.
REFLECTIONS.—What bodies of corruption do we bear about with us! How abominable to be proud of that which may be shortly so loathsome! Other appearances of leprosy are mentioned in an old ulcer, or burn, or scald-head, with directions for the priest's judgment. Note; 1. Old sins breaking out afresh are very bad symptoms of the uncured leprosy of sin. 2. A froward spirit, like the burn in the flesh, continuing unsubdued, is a plain proof of the unsoundness of the heart.