[Dissertations about leprosy in the Seville at the end of the Enlightenment Age].

INTRODUCTION: Leprosy is a well-known disease from ancient history. Society reacts violently due to the fear of infection, and the fact that it causes appalling physical mutilation. It is produced by Mycobacterium leprae, which only affects the nervous system of human beings.

DEVELOPMENT: The norms and examinations that for many years were practiced upon those suspected of being infected by the leprosy organism are based almost always in a series of requirements that were in keeping with cases of verification, thus named the 'declaration of leprosy'. Doctors in the 18th Century, conscious of the consequences of the disease, established a diagnostic procedure for leprosy. But as a result of the medical limitations of the time, and the innate risk of examination of the sufferer in the early phases and their changing symptoms, they adopted a cautious stance and on occasion were overly prudent. These problems remained established in different dissertations presented in the Royal Society of Medicine and other Sciences of Seville during the last third of the 18th Century. A total of eight dissertations related to this disease are analyzed. Two presented by Doctor Bonifacio Ximénez de Lorite in 1765 and 1788 are noteworthy due to the contents and quality.