Path. [Late L., a. Gr. λέπρα: see LEPER sb.1] A skin disease characterized by desquamation: (a) formerly used as a synonym for psoriasis; (b) now commonly applied to leprosy (Lepra cutanea or Elephantiasis Græcorum).
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VII. lxiv. (1495), 279. In foure manere wyse Lepra meselry is dyuerse as the foure humours ben passyngly and dyuersly medlyd.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 196. Lepra is a foul sijknes þat comeþ of malancolie corrupt.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., I. xlviii. 114. Lepra the Leprosie is that which affecteth the whole Body or a part thereof with Scurff like Scales.
1811. A. T. Thomson, Lond. Disp. (1818), 152. Scrofulous swellings, lepra, and some other cutaneous diseases.
1864. W. T. Fox, Skin Dis., 43. Lepra and psoriasis are identical, though the two names are retained.
1876. trans. Wagner’s Gen. Pathol. (ed. 6), 439. The common form of Lepra is characterized by a nodular formation.
1881. Med. Temp. Jrnl., XLVI. 76. Attended with lepra or psoriasis.
attrib. 1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 56. A large collection, or several clusters, of characteristic lepra-cells.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xxvi. 391. A direct and early implication of the nervous system by the lepra bacillus. Ibid., 412. A Sandwich Islander … was inoculated from a lepra tubercle.
b. Bot. ‘A white mealy matter, which exudes or protrudes from the surface of some plants; leprosy’ (Treas. Bot., 1866).
