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 VOORSANGER COLLECTION 
 
 
 OF THE 
 
 
 SEMITIC LIBRARY 
 
 
 OF THE 
 
 
 University of California 
 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 
 REV. JACOB VOORSANGER, D.D. 
 
 1906 
 
 The Religious Tract Society. 
 56, Paternoster Row. London. 
 
K 
 
 
 1 
 
 'j^WJi'-MpMri 
 
 
 CLEOPATRA'S NEEDLE. With 
 an Exposition of the Hiero- 
 glyphics .. 2 
 
 FRESH LIGHT FROM THE 
 ANCIENT MONUMENTS. By 
 A. H. Sayce, LL.D 3 
 
 RECENT DISCOVERIES ON THE 
 TEMPLE HILL AT JERUSALEM. 
 
 By the Rev. J. King, M.A. ... 2 
 
 BABYLONIAN LIFE & HISTORY. 
 By E. A. Wallis Budge, M.A. 3 
 
 GALILEE IN THE TIME OF 
 CHRIST. By Selah Merrill, 
 D.D. ... 2 
 
 EGYPT & SYRIA. Their Physical 
 Features in Relation to Bible 
 History. By Sir J. W. Dawson, 
 F.R.S 3 
 
 ASSYRIA: ITS PRINCES, PRIESTS, 
 AND PEOPLE. By A. H. Sayce, 
 LL.D 3 
 
 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE. 
 By E. A. Wallis Budge, M.A. 3 
 
 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 By Sir J. Risdon Bennett, M.D., 
 F.R.S., Ex-President of the 
 Royal College of Physicians 
 
 2 6 
 
 
THE 
 DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
PRINTED BY HORACE HART. PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY 
 
JSg.^atfis of SBible BnotoUUge. 
 
 IX. 
 
 THE 
 
 DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR RTSDON BENNETT, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 Second Edition, Bevised. 
 
 •» C * « "> 
 
 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 56 Paternoster Row, and 65 St. Paul's Churchyard. 
 
 189T. 
 
<^ 
 
 
 V 
 
 .C 
 
 CNX 
 
 Ij^pr^y^f^-^-Y^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 One of our most illustrious physicians, distinguished 
 alike as an accomplished scholar and patron of learning 
 and the arts, Dr. Richard Mead, Court Physician to 
 George II, was the first British author who published, 
 towards the end of his busy life, a distinct and scholarly 
 work on the Diseases of the Bible, entitled Medica 
 Sacra, 
 
 The original edition was in Latin, in the preface to 
 which he says, ' Be^ryAots autem haec non scrips! ; sed iis 
 tantum qui aut sacris theologicis aut medicis, initiati sint 
 et eruditi.' For neither of these classes are the follow- 
 ing pages primarily intended, but rather for the ordinary 
 educated student of the Scriptures, whether professional 
 or not. The subject, however, involves the discussion 
 of questions demanding the aid of both the initiated and 
 the learned. I have endeavoured to abstain as much as 
 possible from either method or language that would not 
 help the general reader, and have confined myself mainly 
 to the medical aspects of the subjects discussed. 
 
 To my friends, Dr. W. A. Greenhill and the Rev. Dr. 
 Green, my grateful thanks are due for the assistance 
 which they have kindly afforded me. To Dr. Greenhill, 
 not only for the benefit which I have derived from his 
 published writings, but also for the valued criticisms and 
 help with which he has favoured me while these sheets 
 have been passing through the press ; to Dr. Green, for 
 the needed aid of his Hebrew scholarship. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.'org/details/diseasesofbibleOObennrich 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 Chapter I. Leprosy 15 
 
 Sect. I. Nomenclature of the Disease . . .15 
 
 II. Lepra of the Greeks and the Modern Psoriasis 19 
 
 III. Elephantiasis Grsecorum . . . .22 
 
 IV. Characteristics of the Levitical Disease . 28 
 V. Sanitary and Ceremonial Regulations . 38 
 
 VI. Leprosy of the New Testament . . 43 
 
 VII. Contagion and Heredity .... 45 
 
 Chapter II. Plague and Epidemic Diseases ... 56 
 
 Sect. I. Plagues . 5^ 
 
 II. Boils and Blains 64 
 
 III. Fevers and Inflammations . . . . 7^ 
 
 Chapter III. Ophthalmic Diseases and Blindness . . 76 
 
 Chapter IV. Diseases of the Nervous System . . .81 
 
 Sect. I. Lunacy and Demoniacal Possession , . 81 
 
 II. Saul's Disease 83 
 
 III. Nebuchadnezzar's Disease . . . . 88 
 
 IV. Paralysis and Palsy 92 
 
 Chapter V. Diseases of Job, Herod, Hezeki ah, Jeroboam, and 
 
 THE Shunammite Woman's Son ... 99 
 
 Sect. I. Job's Disease 99 
 
 II. The Disease of Herod Agrippa I. . .102 
 
 III. Hezekiah's Disease 104 
 
 IV. Jeroboam's Disease 105 
 
 V. Disease of the Shunammite Woman's Son 106 
 
 Chapter VI. Old Age 108 
 
 Chapter VII. Physical Cause of the Death of Christ . 119 
 
 Appendix. Fiery Serpents 135 
 
 Notes 141 
 
 Index 146 
 
 Index of Scripture References 148 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 To every sincere believer in Divine revelation it must 
 be a matter for unfeigned thankfulness to find how much 
 has been done in recent times to harmonise Scriptural 
 records with the present state of natural science, as well 
 as to show how unreasonable it is to adduce objections 
 based on brief incidental references to subjects of which 
 but little was known when those records were penned. 
 But whatever may be the relation between Scriptural 
 teaching and physical or any branch of natural science, 
 the reader of the Bible cannot fail to be struck with the 
 relation between theology and medicine which is manifest 
 both in the Old Testament and the New. The connexion 
 between sin, which ' brought death into the world and 
 all our woe,' so abundantly shown in the Old Testament, 
 and forgiveness of sin and the ' healing of all manner of 
 sickness and all manner of disease among the people,' so 
 wondrously portrayed in the New, as characterising the 
 Saviour's sojourn on earth, seem not only to warrant but 
 to demand a careful study of those diseases which are 
 mentioned in Holy Scripture, as viewed in their human 
 aspect and in the light of modern medical science. 
 
 In the following pages an attempt is made to investi- 
 gate and illustrate the nature and course of some of the 
 diseases particularly mentioned in the Bible, but not to 
 give either a complete Biblical nosology or an account 
 of Hebrew medicine. 
 
lO ' '' THil' dlBfeASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 It is indeed' rerrtarkc-ble hew little is said of the treat- 
 ment of disease and how much of its prevention. Sanitary- 
 laws are laid down in the most specific and detailed form, 
 and the Mosaic sanitary code may be said to constitute 
 the basis of modern sanitary legislation. Rules relating 
 to food, clothing, personal cleanliness, intercourse with 
 the sick and contact with the dead, and various matters 
 connected with social life, are given in minute detail, the 
 value and import of which it is for the most part easy 
 to see. 
 
 In what is said of those forms and particular examples 
 of disease of which we have treated, no attempt is made 
 always to discriminate between the different means by 
 v/hich, or purposes for which, they were inflicted. In some 
 cases they appear to have occurred as ordinary calamities, 
 as in that of the child of the Shunammite woman, 
 caused by exposure to the heat of the sun. In some 
 they were inflicted simply as signs, as in the case of the 
 leprosy of Moses, and were of temporary duration. In 
 others they were evidently brought about by direct 
 Divine intervention, as a punishment for sin, either of 
 individuals or of the people at large. This, in some 
 instances, was made manifest by prophetic warning and 
 threatening. 
 
 But though natural laws may, in most cases, have 
 been maintained, these and every human element 
 were manifestly subject to the Divine will. Hence 
 it may not always be easy to say what we are to 
 designate as miraculous, and what we may explain by 
 natural law. We have, however, abundant evidence that 
 in all cases the mitigation and removal of disease were in 
 the hands of Him 'who healeth all our diseases,' as well as 
 ' forgiveth all our iniquities.' In at least one instance we 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 1 
 
 have a distinct reprobation of the non-acknowledgment 
 of this, in the case of Asa, who, * when his disease was 
 exceeding great, sought not to the Lord, but to the 
 physicians ' ^ — relying solely on human means. And of 
 the inadequacy of these means alone we have an example, 
 if any be needed, in the case of the woman with the 
 issue of blood, 'who had spent all her living upon 
 physicians, neither could be healed of any.' ^ But that 
 human means are both sanctioned and enjoined is evident, 
 and there is nothing that would justify either a culpable 
 neglect of human aid, or a recourse to superstitious 
 observances. There appears, however, to have been a 
 tendency in the Hebrew mind, as with the Assyrians and 
 other Orientals, to refer afflictions to evil spirits, which 
 must be borne in mind, especially when considering the 
 subject of demoniacal possession. When nothing is 
 distinctly stated to the contrary, we are justified in 
 assuming that the diseases, whether inflicted in the 
 ordinary course of Providence or not, were subject to the 
 same ordinary laws as those of the present day. 
 \4 Some of the diseases mentioned in the Bible are simply 
 named, or so briefly described, that we can only surmise 
 what they were. And with regard to others it will be 
 well to admit m limine that the most learned physicians 
 of the present day find it difficult to identify them 
 with any particular forms of disease with which they 
 are familiar. Nor can this be matter of surprise, both 
 because the diseases in question were described, in the 
 Old Testament at least, by non-professional writers, and 
 at a time when nothing deserving the name of medical 
 science existed ; and also because diseases alter much in 
 their characteristics with lapse of time and change of 
 
 ^ 2 Chron. xvi. 12. ^ Luke viii. 43; Mark v. 26. 
 
12 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 climate and environment, some, there is reason to 
 believe, disappearing altogether. This more especially 
 applies to such cutaneous diseases as are delineated, 
 however minutely, in Lev. xiii. and xiv. The case^ 
 however, is different when we come to the time of the 
 New Testament and of Greek and Arabian medical 
 writers, whose descriptions are, for the most part, such 
 as are readily recognised. 
 
 In Egypt the priests acted as physicians, and appear 
 to have had special diseases, as well as special duties, 
 assigned to them. Some, for example, had diseases of 
 the eye, and some those of the ear,^ allotted to them, and 
 some the duties of embalming. Thus we are told that 
 ' the physicians embalmed Israel.' They were a very nu- 
 merous body, and formed part of the retinue of the great. 
 They must certainly have acquired some knowledge of 
 anatomy, if only from the process of embalming, together 
 with some experience of diseases and the use of surgical 
 instruments. The Egyptian priests had their canons of 
 practice, as laid .down in their sacred books, which they 
 were bound to obey. But such rules of practice consisted 
 largely of superstitious and ceremonial observances. The 
 chief priest-physicians, the Magi, the wise men and 
 magicians of whom Moses speaks, claimed superhuman 
 powers in the control of diseases. 
 
 That the Hebrews obtained what knowledge of disease 
 they had mainly from the Egyptians there can be no 
 doubt, and this would appear to have fallen naturally. to 
 their own priesthood. For although the Jewish priests 
 were not ex officio physicians, they evidently had to do 
 with matters of sanitary and medical science. And we 
 
 ^ Specimens of ex voto tablets given by Wilkinson afford curious evidence 
 of this. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 3 
 
 may safely assume that Moses, who ' was learned in all 
 the wisdom of Egypt,' ^ would not be deficient in such 
 knowledge of disease as the Egyptians possessed. But 
 how much or how little this amounted to we cannot 
 tell, notwithstanding the flood of light which, in recent 
 times, has been shed on the manners and customs of the 
 Egyptians, and the evidence we have of their use of 
 remedies and of the reputation in which they were held 
 as medical practitioners in historic times. Nor must we 
 overlook the evidence, scattered and slight though it be, 
 of medical, or at all events surgical, knowledge possessed 
 by the Hebrews in patriarchal times. 
 
 It is also deserving of notice that neither in the Levi- 
 tical laws, nor elsewhere in the Old Testament, is there 
 any mixing up of cures and curative means with the 
 necromantic or superstitious observances which form so 
 prominent a feature in the medical practice of all other 
 people in primitive times. It is Jehovah that healeth 
 (Ex. XV. 2>6), ' Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, and 
 healeth all thy diseases ' (Ps. ciii. 3) ; Who * bindeth up 
 the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their 
 wound ' (Isaiah xxx. 2,6). The wand of Moses and the 
 brazen serpent constitute no exceptions to this statement, 
 as it is evident that to God alone were the miraculous 
 effects attributed. 
 
 From what we know of the geographical features of 
 the country, as well as of the customs and trades, we 
 might safely assume that certain kinds of disease would 
 be likely to prevail, and among these would be certain 
 fevers and cutaneous diseases. And although it would 
 not be quite safe to infer, from the accounts of the 
 Egyptian diseases given by the Greek, Arabian, and 
 
 ^ Acts vii. 22. 
 
14 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Roman medical writers, that the same diseases, having 
 the same characteristics, existed in the time of Moses, 
 yet they are the highest, as well as the most ancient 
 authorities, to which we can appeal on the questions 
 we have to discuss. The medical terms which they em- 
 ployed as most closely corresponding with the Hebrew 
 text must be allowed to have the utmost weight. And 
 when we come to New Testament times, we have the 
 advantage of reference to Greek and Arabian authorities 
 that is of still greater assistance to us. Physicians then 
 were better instructed and their aid more generally 
 available. So far as we know the history of St. Luke 
 we may take him as an example of one who had had the 
 regular medical education of his day. 
 
 The third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles 
 abound in words and phrases, which for the most part, 
 are not found in the other New Testament writings, 
 but which are common to Greek medical authors. This 
 has been abundantly shewn in the elaborate work of 
 Dr. Hobart, proving from internal evidence that the 
 third Gospel and the Acts were written by the same 
 person, and that the writer was a medical man^. 
 
 1 The Medical Language of St. Luke, &c., by Rev. V^. K. Hobart, LL.D. 
 Dublin, 1882. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 LEPROSY. 
 
 Section I. — Nomenclature of the Disease, 
 
 Since the application of the \.^xx:i\ Leprosy \.o designate 
 the disease described in Lev. xiii. and xiv., the greatest 
 confusion has prevailed in the use of the word, and the 
 utmost difference of opinion as to what it implies. This 
 appears to have arisen mainly from the same Latin word, 
 lepra, having been used in at least two distinct senses. 
 In the one case it denotes a mere skin disease, and in 
 the other a serious constitutional malady, having indeed 
 important cutaneous manifestations, but implicating the 
 whole organism, and ending invariably, it is believed, 
 in death. When used originally to denote simply a 
 disease of the skin, lepra was synonymous with the 
 Greek Xiirpa, the radical meaning of which is rough or 
 scaly [XeTTos, a husk or scale). No medical author, it 
 is believed, either before or after the time of St. Luke 
 ever used the Greek word Xiirpa to denote anything but 
 some rough scaly cutaneous disease.^ The old Greek 
 version of the Pentateuch translates the Hebrew tsara'ath 
 T\V^ by Xk-npa, indicating thereby that the translators 
 considered the Levitical disease (called in the Authorised 
 Version leprosy) to be the skin disease known by that 
 
 ^ See on this whole subject Dr. Greenhill in the Bible Educator ^ 
 vol. iv. p. 76 et seq., 1876. 
 
1 6 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 name in Greek medicine. In modern times also, the 
 same word has been appHed to one of the forms of 
 scaly skin disease that was called lepra vulgaris. This, 
 however, has been abandoned ; what was at one time so 
 called being now classed as a variety of psoriasis, an 
 ancient and very common cutaneous disease. It may: 
 indeed be said to be the most universal of all skin 
 diseases, being found in every climate and among all 
 faces, though most common in equatorial latitudes and 
 among the coloured races. But, as Philo has remarked 
 of Xiirpa,^ it is * a multiform and complicated ' disease, and 
 when differing from its more usual aspect has received 
 special or colloquial names. 
 
 How then, it will be asked, came the terms lepra and 
 leprosy to be applied to that far more serious and indeed 
 awful disease prevalent in the Middle Ages, and still 
 widely spread through the world, technically called 
 elephantiasis Grcecorum, and now spoken of as ' true 
 leprosy ? ' In the present day, this formidable disease is 
 not known as indigenous, either in our own or in some 
 other countries, where it was for several centuries endemic, 
 but is still fearfully prevalent in the East, in the South 
 Seas and West Indian Isles, and in Scandinavia. It was 
 to those who were the subjects of this disease that the 
 terms lepra and lepers were applied, in the Middle Ages^ 
 when Wycliffe made his translation of the Bible ; and 
 to such only are they in the present day applied. A 
 satisfactory answer to the above question is, therefore, a 
 requisite preliminary to any discussion as to the nature and 
 characteristics of the Mosaic disease, as well as to a right 
 understanding of the leprosy of the New Testament. 
 
 Dr. Greenhill, in the papers already referred to, traces 
 
 ^ De Poster. Caini, § 13, torn. i. p. 234, ed. Mangey. 
 
LEPROSY. 17 
 
 the origin of the use of the word lepra in the mediaeval 
 sense, as synonymous with elephantiasis, to Constantine, 
 a monk of Monte Casino, who died towards the end of 
 the eleventh century. 
 
 The following is Dr. Greenhill's view of the origin of 
 the confusion that has arisen from the misapplication of 
 the terms : ^ * The Latin word lepra is used to signify 
 both the leprosy of the Middle Ages and also the lepra 
 vulgaris psoriasis of modern nosologists. We cannot 
 explain how it came to be used in two such different 
 senses, but we think we can trace the confusion to its 
 fountain-head ; at least we will put together a few points 
 which, so far as we are aware, have hitherto escaped 
 observation, and which appear to us to be not unworthy 
 of the attention of the medical antiquary and his- 
 torian. The treatise which appears among the works of 
 Constantinus Africanus, under the title De Morborum 
 Cognitione et Ctiratione^ is known to be a translation of 
 an Arabic work by Ibn-el-Jezzar, who lived in the tenth 
 century. This work also exists in Greek and Hebrew, 
 and therefore enjoys the honour (unique probably) 
 among the older medical writings of being found in no 
 less than four different languages. 
 
 ' In this work the chapter on the Arabic judhdm or 
 true leprosy is headed 'EA.6(^ai;rtao-ts in the Greek MS., 
 and De Elephantiasi in Constantine's printed Latin 
 version (p. 160), but in the body of the chapter the 
 disease is called lepra, which is probably the earliest 
 Latin instance of the word being applied to ikecpavTiaa-Ls, 
 Why he should have used two different words, and not 
 synonymous, to designate the same disease we cannot 
 
 ^ British and Foreign Med. Chir. Review, vol. 54, p. 117. 
 B 
 
1 8 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 tell.' We know also that from the close similarity of 
 certain skin diseases, especially those coming under the 
 category of the old Greek Ki-npa, with some of the 
 cutaneous manifestations of elephantiasis or modern true 
 leprosy, the subjects of various skin affections were often 
 erroneously considered to be leprous, and treated as such 
 by confinement in leper hospitals. In this way the 
 popular confusion would be maintained. To such an 
 extent was this the case, that when, in the beginning of 
 the sixteenth century, an inspection was undertaken in 
 France and Italy of the overcrowded leper hospitals, the 
 fact came out that, in many of them, by far the greater 
 number, and in some instances the whole of the inmates, 
 were found to be suffering merely from various skin 
 diseases, and only a minority from true leprosy.^ 
 
 In like manner, in the present day, some persons are 
 met with in India who are deemed lepers, but are not 
 treated as such, either from being considered to have 
 the malady in a mild form in which the chief visible 
 sign is a persistent skin disease, or because they really 
 have only some analogous skin affection, such as leuco- 
 derma» 
 
 We may now then, without entering too much into 
 medical details, which would scarcely be acceptable to 
 
 ^ Hirsch, Handbook of Geographical and Historical Pathology, vol. iv. p. 8. 
 Syd. Soc. Ed. This admixture is not surprising, for in the sixteenth century 
 lepra, as the Latin synonym of the Greek, was the word used by medical 
 writers to designate the common skin disease. Thus Mercurialis, De Morhis 
 Cutaneis, etc., Venetiis, 1585, chap. v. De Lepra, correctly describes the 
 disease in accordance with Greek authorities whom he quotes. One part of 
 his description deserves notice as bearing on the sense to be attached to the 
 description, Lev. xiii. 14-16: 'Lepra aspera est ad contactum, pruritum 
 inducit quandoquidem cutis sola affecta est, et ideo excoriata ipsa cute caro 
 subiecta sana appdret' Oribasius, commenting on the confusion existing in 
 his day, says, ' Vulgus medicorum, Arabas in hoc secuti, lepram cum elephan- 
 tiasi confundunt, imo lepram pro elephantiasi accipiunt.' 
 
LEPROSY. 19 
 
 the general reader, briefly describe the two diseases 
 which have been so unfortunately confounded the one 
 with the other. 
 
 Section II. 
 Lepra of the Greeks and the Modern Psoriasis, 
 
 The first, the AcTrpa of the Greek physicians (the modern 
 psoriasis^ formerly called lepra vulgaris^ whence have 
 been derived the Latin lepra and leprosus and the English 
 leprosy^ leper and leprous^ is a cutaneous disease varying in 
 its features, but the essential characteristic of which is a 
 rough, scabrous or scaly eruption on the skin, with more or 
 less evidence of surrounding redness or superficial inflam- 
 mation. This may be limited to particular regions, though 
 rarely seen on the face, or may extend over the greater 
 part of the body. These scaly patches assume difl*erent 
 _forms, some being more or less circular with depressed 
 centres. In some the surrounding edges are more or 
 less elevated. The patches vary also in colour, some 
 presenting a glistening mother of pearl whiteness, others 
 various shades of a dark colour, grey or purple. These 
 patches, though for the most part thin, scarcely rising 
 above the surface of the skin, obtain in some varieties 
 a thickness that elevates them a quarter of an inch or 
 more above the surrounding skin. 
 
 In severe and protracted cases the surface of the skin 
 becomes excoriated and exudes serum and blood, which 
 with the scales may form thick scabs. 
 
 If the parts afl'ected are naturally covered with hair, 
 this for the most part falls ofl", or becomes thin and 
 white, or woolly. Of this disease, thus characterised 
 in general terms, various modifications or varieties are 
 
 B 1 
 
20 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 met with, which have received particular names, and 
 which correspond more or less closely with those em- 
 ployed by the Greek writers, such as Kiirpa dAc^oy, XevKrj, 
 fxeAas. All the species or varieties comprehended under 
 the old Greek generic term Xiirpa are in the present day, 
 by very general consent, at least in our country^ classed 
 under the head of psoriasis, whilst by universal consent, 
 all the world over, the terms lepra and leprosy are now 
 restricted to the disease called by the Greeks elephan- 
 tiasis. 
 
 There is no reason whatever to believe that any of 
 these varieties of the old Greek \ki:pa {psoriasis^ are con- 
 tagious, nor are they ever so treated by physicians in 
 the present day. In the more aggravated and persistent 
 forms they are indeed sufficiently repulsive m aspect to 
 interfere with social intercourse, and when met with in 
 the poor and uncleanly they are apt to be associated 
 with other and infectious disorders, more especially 
 scabies or itch. And it is tolerably certain that the 
 itch existed in Egypt. ^ Nor is psoriasis in any sense 
 
 ^ Deut. xxviii. 27, A.V., * The Lord shall smite thee with the botch (boil, 
 R.V.) of Egypt (€A«ei AiyvrrTia) ; Hebrew, Dn^p prrips), and with the 
 emerods {els rrjv 'idpav ; Hebrew, D^bs^ll), and with the scab (scurvy, R.V.) 
 {ipupa dypia ; Hebrew, inp^i), and with the itch {/ivrjcprj ; Hebrew, Dnni^); 
 whereof thou canst not be healed/ It is difficult to surmise what the botch 
 or boil of Egypt may have been, though some have sought to identify it 
 with elephantiasis. But if/cupa dypiq, which our versions have rendered 
 * scab * or ' scurvy,' admit, it has been said, of being rendered, aggravated or 
 malignant psoriasis, though if/upa is undoubtedly the Greek medical word 
 for itch. Why in the R.V. it should be called scurvy, a totally distinct 
 disease, does not appear. Kvr}(pr], which both our versions render ' itch,' may 
 very well mean some other cutaneous disease attended by itching and 
 irritation, e.g. prurigo. Emerods are pretty generally understood to mean 
 hoemorrhoidal tumours, i.e. * piles.' They are thus rendered by the Vulgate, 
 and uniformly by the Jewish translation. 
 
 In verse 35 of the same chapter, 'And the Lord shall smite thee in the 
 knees and in the legs with a sore botch (boil, R.V.), (Hebrew, 3?n l^n^^i; 
 thjiu irovrjpo)), that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top 
 
LEPROSY. 21 
 
 a dangerous disease, or attended even by any grave or 
 very distressing symptoms, though in severe cases there 
 may be a good deal of irritation, and from accidental 
 causes some of the patches may pass into the condition 
 of open sores or raw spots. Though often very per- 
 sistent and rebellious to treatment, it is curable, but apt 
 to recur. There is some reason for beHeving in a here- 
 ditary tendency to the disease, and certain constitutions 
 are more liable to it than others. It can scarcely be 
 said to interfere with the ordinary duties of life, or with 
 mental activity^ although when associated, as it often is, 
 with other causes of impaired health there may, after 
 a while, be loss of both flesh and strength. 
 
 There are several kinds of what are called epiphytic 
 skin diseases, i.e. diseases which are produced by vege- 
 table parasites or epiphytes. The appearances presented 
 by these have some aimlogy with those of some of the 
 varieties oi psoriasis. They are all contagious, inasmuch 
 as they are propagated by the transfer of the particular 
 £piphyte from one person to another. The danger of 
 contamination depends, however, very much on the soil, 
 or state of skin and health of the individual, with which 
 the epiphyte is brought into contact. The common 
 ringworm, so troublesome in schools, is a well-known 
 example of such disease. None of them, however, much 
 impair the general health. 
 
 There are also various fungi, such as those which give 
 rise to common mouldiness and the dry rot, which are 
 self-propagating, and by which houses and garments are 
 affected. There is little difficulty therefore in under- 
 standing what may be meant by leprosy in the house- 
 
 of thy head,' the sore botch or boil is probably the same as the botch of 
 Egypt in ver. 27. 
 
22 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 or raiment, though the Mosaic description may not 
 enable us to speak with confidence as to the particular 
 species denoted. They for the most part indicate an 
 unwholesome state of the atmosphere where they are 
 found. Some Jewish writers maintain that the marks of 
 house leprosy correspond exactly in appearance with 
 those of the person, but no appearances on inanimate 
 objects can be said to betoken either leprosy or any 
 other malady. 
 
 Section III. — Elephantiasis Grcecorum. 
 
 Elephantiasis Grcecorum^ the designation of the other 
 disease to which, as we have said, the term leprosy is 
 now restricted, differs essentially from the cutaneous 
 affections of which we have spoken, both m its nature 
 and general characters. It is one of the most formid- 
 able and hopeless of all known maladies. In some 
 respects it may be said to have most analogy with 
 scrofula or syphilis. The term elephantiasis seems to 
 have been given to it from consideration of its greatness 
 and gravity. Aretaeus,^ the Greek physician, speaks of 
 it as so much greater than the rest of diseases as the 
 elephant is bigger than all other animals. But the term 
 may, with equal probability, have been given to it from 
 the thickened dense condition which the skin assumes, 
 very like that of an elephant, and its diminished sen- 
 sitiveness to impressions.^ 
 
 ^ Mo7'b. Chron. ii. 13. 
 
 2 Curiously enough, whilst the Lepra Arabum is the Elephantiasis 
 Grcecorum J or true leprosy, the Elepha^itiasis Arabum is a totally distinct 
 disease, known in the present day as the ' Barbadoes Leg.' This is 
 characterised by hypertrophic enlargement of the legs and certain parts of 
 the integuments, associated with a dropsical condition, and is believed to be 
 of malarious origin. This form of elephantiasis, the E. Arabttm^ exists in 
 
LEPROSY. 23 
 
 Although, according to Dr. V. Carter, the true leprosy 
 in a few rare cases supervenes suddenly, in persons of appa- 
 rently sound health, its commencement is usually ill de- 
 fined and its early progress slow and insidious. The 
 earliest symptoms of ill-defined bad health may pass off 
 and recur on several occasions, at various intervals. After 
 a while, two distinct features are manifested, loss of 
 sensibility of the nervous fibres supplying the skin and 
 a congested state of the minute vessels, showing itself in 
 the form of circular spots or blotches of irregular forms 
 and varying extent, on the forehead, the limbs and body, 
 the face and neck perhaps showing only a diffused red- 
 ness. Even these symptoms may disappear for a time, to 
 return only with increased intensity, the spots assuming 
 a darker or coppery colour ; stains appear on the skin, 
 which at length becomes tumid, thickened, and rugous, 
 something like the rind of a rough orange. The central 
 portions of the circular spots, in some instances, turn 
 white, and the whole assumes the character of a white 
 blotch. Thus there may exist at the same time, red, 
 purplish, or white spots, some having elevated edges and 
 of various outlines. The eyebrows, nose and ears, are 
 the parts of the face most frequently affected ; elsewhere 
 the spots generally coincide with the distribution of the 
 nerves. The surface of the blotches may be dry and 
 scaly, or moistened by a greasy exudation. In the 
 early stages there is scarcely any pain, and there may 
 not be much throughout, unless from accidental pressure 
 or injury of particular parts ; but a certain degree of 
 numbness or ancesthesia exists in all the affected spots, 
 
 the West Indies and South Sea Islands, and is not infrequently met with, 
 but has never at any time by medical writers been called leprosy. The 
 term elephantiasis seems to have been applied to this from the similarity to 
 the leg of the elephant, which the leg and skin of those affected present. 
 
24 ■ THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the fingers especially being numb, wasted and brown. 
 In many even advanced cases its manifestations may be 
 chiefly seen in the skin and mucous membrane of the mouth, 
 the former showing a number of nodules or tuberosities of 
 various size ; in other cases, the joints of the members 
 are dislocated and fall off. In others again the most 
 prominent symptoms are the increased loss of sensation 
 and diseased state of the nerves. In the tuberous variety 
 the nodules increase in size and number with each return 
 of the febrile symptoms, ulcerate, and after discharging 
 for a while at length heal, unless very extensive. The 
 mouth, nasal passages and larynx^ in severe cases, are 
 similarly affected. The voice becomes hoarse and feeble 
 or is lost ; the septum of the nose is destroyed, and the 
 bones fall in. The eyelids, eyes and ears may also be 
 affected in a like manner, the lobes of the ears sometimes 
 enormously enlarged. But we abstain from farther de- 
 scription of the awful and destructive consequences of this 
 terrible disease, by which, in many instances, almost all 
 trace of the human form and aspect may be destroyed 
 by mutilation and disfigurement.^ In the anaesthetic 
 variety, whilst the loss of common sensation is more 
 pronounced, there are often internal burning and neuralgic 
 pains productive of great suffering and attended by 
 distressing and frightful dreams. 
 
 Instances are recorded where the miserable sufferers 
 
 1 In a Roman Catholic Manual for Curates it is said that to some lepers 
 the Sacrament cannot be given, because ' Non possunt Corpus Dominicum 
 sic recipere et tractare in ore suo quin rejicerent ipsum, sic multi quibus 
 reciderunt labia et dentes et sunt totaliter corrosi usque ad guttur.' Mani- 
 pulus Curatorum. Bremen, i577. Thomson, The Land mid the Book, 
 p. 653, says : * Sauntering down the Jaffa road, on my approach to the 
 Holy City, in a kind of dreamy maze ... I was startled out of my reverie 
 by the sudden apparition of a crowd of beggars " sans eyes, sans nose, sans 
 hair, sans everything.'* They held up towards me their handless arms, 
 unearthly sounds gurgled through throats without palates.' 
 
LEPROSY. 25 
 
 have survived the loss of more than one limb ; but though 
 life may be protracted for even more than ten or fifteen 
 years, the disease pursues its onward course. It is 
 irremediable by any known human means, and of the 
 witnesses of such appalling sights it may be said : 
 * Horror ubique animos, simul ipsa silentia terrent' well 
 nigh to the exclusion of pity. 
 
 All observation of this terrible malady goes to prove 
 that it comprises a deep-seated general dyscrasia of the 
 system, but where and how it originates are still involved 
 in mystery. For the present we do not enter on the 
 questions of contagion and heredity. 
 
 Its former existence in and subsequent disappearance 
 from certain localities and countries, our own among 
 others, have given rise to a very prevalent opinion that 
 it springs from endemic causes, whether malarious or 
 not. Although most prevalent in hot and damp climates, 
 it is rife in the most opposite climes, in Norway, the 
 East and West Indies, and in the South Seas, and 
 although vicinity to the sea-shore has been thought to 
 have some special influence, it is found in inland districts. 
 
 Removal from all known or suspected injurious 
 climatic influences, as well as from all insanitary con- 
 ditions, are admittedly of the first importance as remedial 
 means, and next to these a generous and nutritious diet. 
 
 The history of leper hospitals and institutions in 
 the Middle Ages is fraught with the deepest and varied 
 interest. Nowhere has so full and learned an account 
 been given of them as in the Essays of Sir J. Y. 
 Simpson,^ although he had specially in view their history 
 in Scotland, where they existed, as well as in the border 
 counties, before the year 1200. And the disease con- 
 
 ^ Edin, Med. and Surg. Journal, vols. 56 and 57. 
 
26 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 tinned to exist in the Shetland Isles till the middle 
 of the last century.^ In Scotland the malady was 
 termed the ' mickle ail,' or great disease, and by the 
 old French chronicler Froissart, who visited Scotland 
 in the time of Robert II, it is called la grosse 
 maladie. The hospitals, however, were not for the cure 
 of the infected, but charitable retreats, as the disease 
 was considered incurable. Of this a curious illustration 
 is afforded by the case of one Christian Livingstone, tried 
 for witchcraft, against whom one of the gravest accusa- 
 tions was that she 'affirmit that she culd hail (cure) 
 leprosie quhilk the maist expert men in medicine are not 
 abil to do.' ^ 
 
 It has been supposed that the leprosy of the Middle 
 Ages was introduced into England by those who returned 
 
 ^ Few persons probably are aware of the extent to which leprosy pre- 
 vailed in the Middle Ages, or of the number of leper hospitals that existed 
 in Europe. Mezeray says, in his History of Philip II, that in the twelfth 
 century, ^ II n'y avoit ny ville ny bourgade qui ne fust obligee de batir un 
 hospital pour retirer les lepres.' Histoire de France, torn. ii. p. i68. 1645. 
 Muratori gives a similar account of the extent of the disease in Italy : ' In 
 Italia vix ulla erat civitas quae non aliquem locum, leprosis destinatum 
 haberet.' Antiq. Ital. Medii ]^vi, torn. iii. p. 53. 
 
 2 Pitcairn's Criminal Trials in Scotland, vol. ii. p. 29. The following 
 is a specimen of one of Christian Livingstone's means of cure, in the words 
 of the libel : * She took a reid cock, slew it, baked a bannock with the 
 blude of it & gaf the samyn to the leper to eat.' As a further specimen of 
 the many sure and certain cures, the following is given by Michael Scott, the 
 Fifeshire philosopher : * It ought to be known,' he says, ' that the blood of 
 dogs and of infants two years old or under, when diffused through a bath of 
 heated water, dispels the leprosy without a doubt ' (' absque dubio liberat 
 lepram'). De Secretis Natures, p. 241. Amsterdam, 1790. 
 
 That the miraculous powers attributed to the relics of saints were 
 employed will readily be assumed. Fosbroke (^British Monachism, &c., 
 p. xv) mentions a fountain near Moissac, the waters of which were so 
 medicated by the relics of a saint contained in the neighbouring monastery 
 that crowds of lepers resorted to them, bathed, and were immediately cured. 
 But the waters were not of sufficient virtue to prevent the disease being 
 communicated to the monks, or to save them when attacked. The fountain 
 therefore, according to the confession of the abbot, was shut up in consequence 
 of some of the monks having died of the disease which their famed waters 
 could infallibly remove. 
 
LEPROSY. 27 
 
 from the Crusades (1096) ; but thqre is ample evidence 
 that it existed in the continent of Europe before the 
 time of the Crusades, and Lanfranc^ Archbishop of 
 Canterbury in the time of William the Conqueror, 
 founded a hospital for lepers at Canterbury, ligneas 
 domos ad opus leprosorum, ^ Other leper hospitals were 
 also founded before the end of the eleventh century. 
 
 Although it was chiefly among the lower orders, the 
 ' villeyns,' that the disease prevailed, no class of society 
 was exempt, not even royalty. King Robert Bruce is 
 believed to have died of it. It appears to have been 
 more prevalent among males than among females. 
 
 Much has been said on the injurious effects of particular 
 articles of food, such as fish, as well as on the want of 
 others, particularly salt, and generally on modes of living 
 and habits of life, but nothing has been definitely proved. 
 As to all such external causes of this as well as of other 
 diseases. Sir James Simpson has well observed, ' that the 
 investigation of the causes of disease (aetiology) has 
 probably more than any other department of medicine 
 been marked by belief without evidence and assertion 
 without facts.' Recent discoveries in pathological science 
 would doubtless demand some modification of this severe 
 censure, for which, however, there is still too much justifi- 
 cation. It is certainly very difTficult to ascertain from 
 the multifarious statements of modern observers, with 
 any degree of confidence, what are the true sources of 
 this fearful malady. Dr. Dudgeon gives an abstract of 
 Chinese views of the disease in his Report on Peking, 
 1875. Among other names given to the disease is ' lai,' 
 
 ^ Antiqtnties of Canterbury, vol. i. p. 42, and vol. ii. p. 169. There are 
 other historical evidences that the disease existed both ia Great Britain and 
 the Continent before the Crusade exodus. 
 
28 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the term applied to the ' mange ' in the dog. It is said 
 to arise from three sources — climate, infection, and de- 
 fective nutrition. Five different forms of the disease are 
 met with. In one, the skin dies, indicated by loss of sen- 
 sation ; in the second, the flesh dies, and no pain is felt 
 on cutting it ; in the third, the blood dies and ulceration 
 and pus are formed ; in the fourth, the tendons die and 
 hands and feet drop off; and in the fifth, the bones die, 
 the nose is destroyed. Along with this the eyes, lips, 
 and nose become involved. Among the causes specified 
 is *the air of graves.' The hereditary and infectious nature 
 of leprosy is noticed and terms used expressive of its 
 malignity.^ 
 
 That its unhappy subjects are rendered unfit for 
 ordinary social intercourse has always been admitted, 
 and from Christian benevolent considerations, as well 
 as on medical grounds, they have not been allowed to 
 appeal in vain for that sympathy, care, and alleviation 
 which can only be afforded by segregation in duly 
 appointed and supervised special institutions.^ 
 
 Section IV. — Characteristics of the Levitical Disease, 
 
 This brief and necessarily imperfect sketch of the dis- 
 eases which we have attempted to describe, will probably 
 have enabled the reader to form a sufficiently correct 
 
 * Surgeon-Gen. Gordon's Reports , 1884, p. 150. 
 
 2 The celebrated tractate of Count Xavier de Maistre, entitled Le Lepreux 
 de la Cite cPAoste, gives a most graphic and pathetic account of his interview 
 with a leper confined in an ancient tower in the suburbs of Aosta in 1797, 
 and cannot be perused without the greatest interest, whether by medical 
 or non-medical readers. See also Sir J. Simpson, Edin. Med. and Surg. 
 Journal, vols. 56 and 57, 'Antiquarian Notices of Leprosy and Leper 
 Hospitals in Scotland and England,' replete with learned and historical 
 data. 
 
LEPROSY. 29 
 
 notion of their respective features. We may therefore 
 proceed to enquire what are the characteristics of the 
 disease or diseases spoken of in the Authorised Version 
 of our Scriptures as leprosy, the most detailed description 
 of which we have given us in Lev. xiii. and xiv. 
 
 ' When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, 
 a scab, or bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like 
 the plague of leprosy ; then he shall be brought unto 
 Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests : 
 
 ' And the priest shall look on the plague in the skin of 
 the flesh : and when the hair in the plague is turned 
 white, and the plague in sight be deeper than the skin of 
 his flesh, it is a plague of leprosy : and the priest shall 
 look on him, and pronounce him unclean. 
 
 ' If the bright spot be white in the skin of his flesh, and 
 in sight be not deeper than the skin, and the hair thereof 
 be not turned white ; then the priest shall shut up him 
 that hath the plague seven days : 
 
 ' And the priest shall look on him the seventh day : 
 and, behold, if the plague in his sight be at a stay, and 
 the plague spread not in the skin ; then the priest shall 
 shut him up seven days more : 
 
 ' And the priest shall look on him again the seventh 
 day : and, behold, if the plague be somewhat dark, and 
 the plague spread not in the skin, the priest shall pro- 
 nounce him clean : it is but a scab : and he shall wash his 
 clothes, and be clean. 
 
 * But if the scab spread much abroad in the skin, after 
 that he hath been seen of the priest for his cleansing, he 
 shall be seen of the priest again : 
 
 ' And if the priest see that, behold, the scab spreadeth 
 in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean : 
 it is a leprosy.' — Lev. xiii. :^-8, et seq., A. V. 
 
30 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Here the first difficulty with which we are encountered 
 is manifestly philological : What is the true meaning of 
 the Hebrew words used to describe the diseases, and what 
 are the modern equivalent medical terms ? We are, no 
 doubt, greatly assisted in this enquiry by translations of 
 the Hebrew texts made at a time when medical science 
 had considerably advanced, and when medical terms 
 were used in a definite recognised sense. And though 
 in some cases these terms may have since acquired a 
 difi"erent meaning, there is not often much difficulty in 
 determining what the Greek and other ancient medical 
 writers meant by the terms they employed. In answer 
 to the first question, I am fortunate in being able to give 
 the following, with which I have been favoured by so com- 
 petent an authority as my friend Dr. S. G. Green: ''Leper 
 and leprosy are always denoted in the Old Testament 
 by words derived from one root (y^!^, tsara\ the primi- 
 tive meaning of which appears to be to sting, hence to 
 smite, the root-element in the word expressing narrow- 
 ness — hence sharpness, and so affiiction and distress 
 generally. The word is used alike for the leprosy of 
 Moses (Ex. iv. 6), of Miriam (Num. xii. lo), also for 
 leprosy of a house (Lev. xiv. 44), and of a garment 
 (Lev. xiv. ^^, It was evidently a cutaneous disease^ at 
 least in one of its manifestations " white as snow,'' and in 
 house or garment a white surface, e. g. " mouldiness." 
 
 ' The following are the terms used to denote the ap- 
 pearances or signs of this tsarciath : 
 
 Leviticus xiii. 2 a rising riNiiiJ s^eik swelling. 
 
 „ „ a scab nnsp sappachath gathering. 
 
 „ J, a bright spot nnna bahereth fiery (?). 
 
 „ „ 6 somewhat dark nns kehah dim, faded. 
 
 „ ,. 10 quick raw flesh m chay living flesh. 
 

 LEPROSY. 
 
 31 
 
 Leviticus xiii. i8 
 
 aboil y^V sh\heen'^ 
 
 inflamed sore. 
 
 ,, n 30 
 
 dry scall pn: netheq 
 
 scurf (from a root de- 
 noting tearing off). 
 
 „ >i 39 
 
 a freckled spot pnh bohaq 
 
 white skin eruption. 
 
 throughout 
 
 plague 5?:: ^^^<a! 
 
 stroke or smiting.' 
 
 Dr. Mason Good,^ and after him Dr. Belcher^ and 
 others, consider that Moses described three varieties of 
 leprosy, and used berat or bahereth, ' bright spot,' as a 
 generic term, two of these, the berat kehah and the berat 
 tbhanah, being the severer, or malignant forms, and 
 bohaq a more innocent. All these he identifies with the 
 three Greek varieties of kiirpa, and the three varieties 
 of the vitiligo of Celsus,* which are described by corre- 
 sponding Greek terms, viz. AcTrpa ak(\>6si Xiirpa jiiXas, and 
 AcTTpa AeuKT], all of which Dr. Good classes under the head 
 of his leprosis, or lepriasis, or the modern psoriasis. 
 Other cutaneous blemishes, or blains, Good considers to 
 be mentioned by Moses, as requiring to be carefully 
 watched, being liable to terminate in the malignant form 
 of leprosy. It must, however, be stated that other writers 
 have not been able to satisfy themselves that the Le- 
 vitical descriptions are sufficient to identify the signs 
 with those which mark the three varieties of the Greek 
 kiirpa. This probably arises principally from differences 
 in the interpretation of the terms employed to distin- 
 guish the different cutaneous changes. Thus ' a rising ' 
 in Lev. xiii. 2 has been supposed to denote the thickened 
 rough elevations of skin in elephantiasis ; and much stress 
 has been laid on this^ as strongly supporting the opinion 
 
 ^ This is the term employed to denote the disease of Job ii. 7, and that of 
 Hezekiah 2 Kings xx. 7 ; Isaiah xxxviii. 21. 
 ^ Study of Medicine. Some of his conclusions have not satisfied all critics. 
 ^ Dublin Journal of Medical Science, 1864. 
 * De Med., lib. v. in fine. 
 
32 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of those who hold that the Levitical disease was elephan- 
 tiasis. But the word is held by competent scholars to 
 denote any pimple or vesicle arising on the skin, and to 
 be co-extensive with what the Greek physicians termed 
 (i)XvKTaiva, It must also be remembered that in psoriasis 
 there is often considerable elevation and thickening of 
 the cuticle. 
 
 The word translated scab in ver. 2 is, according to 
 Mason Good, the dry sahafati of the Arabians, derived 
 from the same root, and which the Greeks translated by 
 psoriasis. It would therefore indicate a dry scall or 
 scale, words derived from the Saxon sceala, a rough sur- 
 face. This Saxon sceala, Dr. Belcher says, comprised 
 two varieties, dry and moist, as did also the Arabic 
 sahafati. Mason Good says that the description ' dry ' 
 in ver. 30 does not occur in the original, which is pP^ 
 the root of which Dr. Green says denotes tearing off. 
 Dr. Good therefore takes this to be a variety of humid 
 scall, and to correspond to impetigo, which forms a thick 
 crust of exuded matter on the beard, that cannot be 
 removed by shaving, nor without violence or tearing. 
 The word used by the LXX to translate ^Vs}^ is 
 Opavo-fjia, or crust. 
 
 That the descriptions of the various forms of skin 
 disease were intended, not to denote differences in their 
 nature or pathology, but to enable the priests to dis- 
 criminate between the clean and unclean forms, is mani- 
 fest. They were intended purely for practical use. But 
 that the three forms of scaly eruption to which the terms 
 dokaq and bahereth are applied, do correspond very closely 
 if not indisputably with the three varieties of the vitiligo 
 of Celsus and of the AeVpa of the Greeks can scarcely be 
 denied. Thus we have hohaq as representing Ki-npa ak(p6s, 
 
LEPROSY. 33 
 
 baMreth hehah = XcTrpa fxiXas, and bahereth Vbkanak = 
 
 It has been said that the appearances described to 
 guide the Jewish priests relate only to the early stages 
 of the disease, and cannot therefore be expected to 
 comprise any of the advanced signs characteristic of 
 elephantiasis. But a long list of medical writers of the 
 Middle Ages might be given who clearly describe the 
 phenomena of elephantiasis, and among these some who 
 give minute accounts of the various symptoms which 
 the physician ought to look for when examining sus- 
 pected persons, and point out the mode in which he 
 should proceed before venturing to consign a suspected 
 person to the seclusion of a leper hospital, and thus doom 
 him for ever to be a despised * child of St. Lazarus.' 
 Now the indications laid down for the guidance of the 
 Jewish priests comprise scarcely any, if any, of those 
 insisted on by these mediaeval writers, although such 
 indications are carefully divided by these writers into 
 (i) occult premonitory signs ('signa occulta principio'), 
 which, though far more decisive than those given by 
 Moses, are not to be held sufficient to adjudge the 
 patient for separation, but only as requiring that he 
 should be carefully watched ; {%) infallible signs, which, 
 though they are such as are not even hinted at by Moses, 
 require immediate separation from the people ('quibus 
 apparentibus patiens est a populo sequestrandus ') ; (3) 
 signs of the last stage and breaking up (' naufragium ') 
 of the disease, and which comprise those fearful signs 
 of deformity and mutilation that characterise the most 
 advanced cases.^ 
 
 ^ Bemhard Gordon, a physician of Montpellier 1309, as quoted by 
 Simpson in Edin. Med. and Surg. Journal. 
 
34 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Guy de Chauliac, a physician at Lyons and Avignon, 
 in the fourteenth century, in like manner speaks of the 
 equivocal and the unequivocal signs denoting all the 
 species of leprosy, but neither does he give any mere 
 cutaneous appearances as decisive of the disease.^ It 
 has been affirmed that the blanching of the hair on the 
 patches is decisive of anaesthetic leprosy, but this it 
 certainly is not. Dr. Chaplin, formerly Physician to the 
 Leper Hospital at Jerusalem, says, * In the interest of 
 scientific truth,' ' that white hairs are not a characteristic 
 of anaesthetic leprosy. I speak from knowledge, having, 
 as Physician to a Lepers' Asylum, closely observed that 
 disease during sixteen years.' 
 
 The first mention of leprosy is in Exodus iv. 6, where, 
 as a sign given to Moses to satisfy the people that he 
 had been sent by God, he was directed to put his hand 
 into his bosom, and on withdrawing it ' behold, his hand 
 was leprous as snow/ and after repeating the act, and 
 again plucking out his hand, * behold, it was turned again 
 as his other flesh.' ^ 
 
 The sign thus given was no doubt miraculous ; but is it 
 necessary to assume that the appearance presented by 
 the hand of Moses indicated either an incurable or 
 infectious disease, in order to convince the people that 
 it was miraculous, as the commentators suppose ? The 
 sign was that of a skin disease well known to the people 
 as gradually and slowly manifesting itself, and of a more 
 
 ^ Quoted by Simpson. The unequivocal signs (' signa univoca ') which he 
 gives are — '(i) rotundity of the ears and eyes; (2) thickening and tuberosity 
 of the eyebrows, with falling off of their hair; (3) dilatation and disfiguration 
 of the nostrils externally, with stricture of them within and foetidity of the 
 lips ; (4) voice raucous and nasal ; (5) foetidity of the breath and of the whole 
 person ; (6) fixed and horrible satyr-like aspect.' 
 
 ^ The Septuagint says merely 'as snow' {uffelxiojv) ; the Revised Version, 
 * leprous, white as snow.' 
 
LEPROSY. 35 
 
 or less persistent character, as well as difficult of cure. 
 The sudden invasion of such a disease in fully developed 
 form, and its equally sudden disappearance, were quite 
 sufficient to prove its miraculous occurrence ; and there 
 is certainly nothing to lead us to think that it was 
 anything more than a local affection implicating the 
 hand. 
 
 The next particular example that we have is the case 
 of Miriam (Num. xii. ic). The pillar of the cloud in 
 which the Lord came down and stood in the door of 
 the tabernacle having departed from off the tabernacle, 
 ' behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow, and 
 Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous.'^ 
 Here it is observable that the same terms are used to 
 characterise the leprosy as in the case of Moses, whose 
 hand became 'leprous as snow.' In both cases the 
 snowy whiteness is the only characteristic that is given 
 us, and in the case of Miriam, as in that of Moses, the 
 sudden manifestation of the disease in the skin in a form 
 that admitted of no question was proof of its miraculous 
 origin. But the Divine interposition for the cure of 
 Miriam, though doubtless also miraculous, does not 
 appear to have been immediate, as in the case of Moses, 
 it would rather seem that she remained leprous for seven 
 days ; probably in order that the judgment of God for her 
 sin might be made manifest to the people. The prayer of 
 Moses that she might be * healed,' not merely cleansed, 
 was at all events answered after her seven days' seclusion 
 from the camp. No mention is made of any cleansing. 
 But the words of Aaron demand especial attention. 'And 
 Aaron said unto Moses [Revised Version], Oh, my lord, 
 lay not^ I pray thee, sin upon us, for that we have done 
 
 ^ The Septuagint here has X^irpwaa wael x'-^' 
 C '2^ 
 
^6 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 foolishly, and for that we have sinned. Let her not, I 
 pray, be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half consumed 
 when he cometh out of his mother's womb.' It is 
 difficult to understand exactly what is meant by these 
 last words. Do they mean, Let her not be as good as 
 dead, like one whose flesh is diseased and corrupted at 
 birth, and who manifestly cannot live ? If so, this is 
 almost the only passage which can be cited in support 
 of the theory that the Mosaic leprosy presents any 
 analogy to the modern leprosy, or elephantiasis. Or 
 do the words simply imply that Aaron, seeing how 
 pronounced was the disease, . felt that she never would 
 be cured by ordinary means, and so during the rest of 
 her life would be shut out from the congregation, and 
 civilly dead?^ That she was rendered ceremonially un- 
 clean is manifest from what follows, and therefore a 
 period of seclusion was enjoined. More on this difficult 
 passage cannot well be said, except that in this instance 
 the disease was inflicted as a judgment of God for sin, 
 whilst in the case of Moses what appears to have been 
 the same variety of disease was inflicted simply as a sign. 
 Had Miriam presented any of the marks of elephantiasis 
 beyond the cutaneous appearance so as to excite Aaron's 
 despairing cry, would they not have been mentioned ? 
 
 The next cases are those of Naaman and Gehazi. No 
 description of the aspect of Naaman's case is given ; it 
 is simply stated that 'he was a leper.' {o^ Kings v. i.) But 
 he was not therefore the subject of an incurable disease 
 in the estimation of the little Israelitish maid, who said 
 unto her mistress, * Would God my lord were with the 
 
 ^ We have abundant evidence that in the Middle Ages any one who was 
 adjudged a leper was separated from intercourse with mankind, * ab hominum 
 conversatione separandus.* 
 
LEPROSY. 37 
 
 prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him 
 of his leprosy.' Of Gehazi it. is said, 'The leprosy of 
 Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for 
 ever. And he went out from the presence of the 
 prophet a leper as white as snow.' (2 Kings v. 27.) 
 His, therefore, is a third case ; or, if it were the same 
 variety as that of Naaman, the fourth case of what has been 
 called white leprosy. But neither in the case of Naaman 
 nor of Gehazi is there any evidence that the disease was 
 contagious, and thus rendered them unclean. On the 
 contrary, Naaman is represented as living at the court 
 and discharging his duties as general in the army, and 
 Gehazi as still serving as the attendant of Elisha and 
 holding intercourse with the king after he had become 
 the subject of a leprosy that was to cling to him and his 
 seed for ever, but which did not impair his health so as 
 to incapacitate him for service.^ 
 
 In the case of Uzziah (2, Chr. xxvi. 19-21) the character 
 of the leprosy miraculously inflicted for sin is not de- 
 scribed ; it is merely stated that it appeared first on his 
 forehead. But that it was of the severe type and ren- 
 dered him unclean must be inferred, because he ' was a 
 leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several 
 house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of 
 the Lord.' ^ 
 
 The remaining instance given in the Old Testament is 
 
 ^ Josephus speaks of leprosy in a man as ' a misfortune in the colour of 
 his skin.' ' There are lepers in many nations who are yet in honour, and 
 not only free from reproach and avoidance, but who have been great 
 captains of armies and been entrusted with high offices in the common- 
 wealth, and have had the privilege of entering into holy places and temples.' 
 Antiq. iii. c. Xl, sect. 4. 
 
 '■' The first cutaneous manifestation of elephantiasis is frequently on the 
 forehead ; hence Uzziah's case is thought to support the opinion that this 
 was really the nature of his leprosy. 
 
38 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 that of the four lepers at the gate of Samaria, 2 Kings 
 vii. 3, of whose leprosy we know nothing, but infer that 
 it rendered them unclean, and compelled them to dwell 
 alone without the gates, though evidently it did not 
 incapacitate them for bodily exertion. 
 
 Section V. — Sanitary and Ceremonial Regulations. 
 
 Having thus sought to gather all the light that we can 
 from the particular cases recorded in the Old Testament, 
 we proceed to examine the descriptions and regulations 
 respecting the disease or diseases mentioned in Lev. 
 xiii. and xiv. 
 
 In these chapters it must, we think, be evident even 
 to the ordinary reader, and certainly to the physician, 
 that more than one disease is treated of. Certain 
 symptoms are described, on seeing which, and after 
 watching their course, the priest declares the patient 
 to be clean or unclean, as the case may be ; and that 
 this decision does not turn merely on the slight and 
 limited character or on the extent and severity of the 
 outward signs is clear. For, strange as it appears, in 
 chap. xiii. 12, 13 (R. V.) we are told that if the 'leprosy 
 cover all the skin of him that hath the plague from his 
 head even to his feet, as far as appeareth to the priest, 
 then the priest shall look ; and, behold, if the leprosy 
 have covered all his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean 
 that hath the plague : it is all turned white : he is clean.' 
 Here again the appearance is that of the white leprosy, 
 which, however, is styled the plague. 
 I Whilst tsardath {TsT^^) is the word always used 
 /in the Hebrew to denote what in the A.V. is called 
 I leprosy and the plague of leprosy, it evidently was 
 
LEPROSY. 39 
 
 employed as a generic term, other words being employed 
 to denote, if not varieties, at all events particular aspects 
 of the disease. Not only Dr. Mason Good, as we have 
 seen, but also Dr. Adams,^ Dr. Greenhill, and others have 
 bestowed much learned pains in endeavouring to identify 
 these varieties with corresponding diseases of the Greek, 
 Arabian and Latin writers. But though it is not in 
 most cases difficult to see the correspondence between 
 diseases with which physicians in the present day are 
 familiar and those described by Greek and other ancient 
 writers, we cannot speak with more confidence than we 
 have already spoken as to the classical names or position 
 that should be assigned to some of the descriptions 
 given by the Mosaic writer as varieties of tsardath or 
 other analogous diseases. It may, however, without fear \ 
 of contradiction be affirmed that scarcely any physician J 
 of the present day can see in the various features of the / 
 disease described in Leviticus anything but varieties of' 
 cutaneous disease of some kind. The use of the word 
 Xiirpa, as we have remarked, seems sufficient proof that 
 the LXX considered the Hebrew word to correspond with 
 the Greek word which the Latins called /epra. The Latin \ 
 writer Celsus, whilst using another word, vitiligo^ de- \ 
 scribes with great accuracy and clearness the several I 
 varieties of the Greek kiirpa, which correspond more or / 
 less closely with the Mosaic descriptions. But to none / 
 of these does Celsus attribute any contagious property/ 
 though he does call them foul (fceda). And he distinctly 
 states that they are not dangerous, which could certainly 
 not be said of elephantiasis or modern leprosy.^ 
 
 ^ Patilus ALgineta, Syden. Soc. Trans. 
 
 ^ Celsus, De Medicina, lib. v. cap. 28, sect. 19 : ' De vitiliginis speciebus, 
 id est, de alpho et melane et leuke,' i. e. the different species of what is 
 
40 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 In what then does the distinction between clean and 
 unclean consist, on which the Levitical laws were based ? 
 If we suppose that uncleanness ever implied contagious- 
 ness, which, in many cases, we are sure that it did not, the 
 only conclusion to which we can come with any con- 
 fidence is, that in certain kinds of H^"]^ there was 
 a contagious element, perhaps unknown to the writer, 
 which might be some form of epiphyte, or an acarus, 
 as in the case of the itch. Such a complication of 
 an otherwise non-contagious disease would, of course, 
 call for sanitary regulations, and render necessary the 
 seclusion of the affected. But, if apart from such con- 
 siderations any of the species described were in their 
 nature infectious or contagious, we are ignorant of any 
 analogous diseases, either ancient or modern. Nor is 
 there evidence that any of the species presented, apart 
 from the cutaneous signs, any of the essential characters 
 of such a disease as elephantiasis. 
 " There is nowhere any mention or even hint of the 
 characteristic anaesthesia, or loss of sensation, indicating 
 nerve disease, although the examination of the local 
 signs by the priest was evidently of the most careful 
 and minute description. Nor is there anywhere either 
 in the Old or New Testament any passage to show that 
 a leper had been recognised by any of those hideous 
 signs of deformity or mutilation denoting a pronounced 
 case of mediaeval leprosy. Even if we admit that the 
 Levitical descriptions are confined to the early mani- 
 
 called now psoriasis, and of which he says, ' qiiamvis per se nullum peri- 
 culum adfert, tamen et foeda est.' It is observable that elephantiasis is not 
 treated of in this book v, comprisipg cutaneous diseases, but in his third book, 
 cap. 25, along with such diseases as jaundice and apoplexy. Vitiligo is the 
 term used also by Amobius (fourth century) to denote the Greek Xiirpa 
 {Adv. Gentes, lib. i. p. 337, ed. Paris, 1836). 
 
LEPROSY. 41 
 
 festations of the disease, yet inasmuch as distinct state- 
 ments are given respecting lepers that were abroad and 
 not secluded, one would have expected some other signs 
 besides those presented by the skin to have been noticed, 
 as modern travellers have done. Neither does it seem 
 probable that none of those who were secluded were 
 ever seen from a distance and recognised by such 
 disfigurement as would have excited horror. Nor is 
 anything said of any service or care being afforded to 
 those who were unable to take care of themselves. Again, 
 of those who were excluded from the congregation on 
 account of their uncleanness, we have no ground for as- 
 suming that the disease was ever fatal, as no such instance 
 is given ; or even that they were in all cases irremediably 
 diseased and never cleansed, whether miraculously, or 
 by ordinary means employed during their period of 
 seclusion. On the contrary, the minute rules for cleans- 
 ing show that they were sometimes cured. If in all cases 
 the disease was inflicted for sin — of which there is no 
 evidence — we might perhaps have supposed that the 
 infliction was irremediable by ordinary means, but not 
 therefore mortal. 
 
 On the other hand, if, apart from all sanitary or 
 medical considerations, we are to view the disease in a 
 ceremonial or symbolical aspect alone, it is difficult to 
 understand either why it should be described at such 
 length, or why certain species should render the sufferer 
 unclean, and others not. Why, for example, should one 
 in whom the leprosy covered all the skin of his flesh, 
 and who had the plague from his head even to his feet, 
 be pronounced clean? (Lev. xiii. 12.) That no argument 
 in support of contagion can be drawn simply from the 
 sentence of expulsion from the camp is evident from 
 
42 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Num. V. 2-4, and elsewhere, for lepers and non-lepers 
 are equally excluded on the ground of uncleanness. In 
 fact, the laws of seclusion were as rigorously applied to 
 the uncleanness induced by touching a dead body, as 
 well as in other cases where no question of contagion 
 can exist. The same terms are used when speaking of 
 inanimate objects as when speaking of persons, so that 
 Jewish writers have supposed that the same appearances 
 were presented by the spot or eruption in both cases. 
 On the other hand, it must be admitted that from early 
 periods elephantiasis is believed to have existed in Egypt 
 (but whether in the time of Moses we are not certain), 
 and therefore we might assume that the Jews would be 
 likely to be affected. But modern observers who have 
 seen most of ^rue leprosy state that it is not very common 
 among Jews. Thus Dr. V. Carter says that during a 
 period of seventeen years^ out of a very large number of 
 cases in Bombay, he had seen only four cases and but 
 one death among Jews.^ The so-called endemic leprosy 
 of Egypt, whatever it was, does not appear to have been 
 known to the older Greek physicians as an Egyptian 
 disease, and the true leprosy or elephantiasis was un- 
 known in the Roman empire till the last century before 
 Christ. 
 
 The references made by Brugsch in his Histoire 
 d'Egypte to a medical papyrus discovered at Memphis 
 and containing a number of receipts for the cure of 
 disease, ' du genre de la lepre,' composed during the 
 reign of Rameses II, B.C. 1350, and also to a passage the 
 date of which he throws back to B.C. 4200, do not shed 
 
 ^ * In Tangier in the present day the two diseases are found, the leprosy 
 HebrcBorimt prevailing chiefly among the Jewish residents, and presenting 
 exactly the symptoms described in Leviticus. 0^ the other hand, in Syria 
 elephantiasis is unknown among the Jews.' Belcher on Our Lord^s Miracles. 
 
LEPROSY. 43 
 
 any real light on the question. The collection of receipts 
 given in the latter document are for curing the exan- 
 themata. The way in which Celsus treats the subject 
 of elephantiasis warrants the belief that he, who was 
 not a physician, had never seen the disease, and would 
 explain his omission of the characteristic feature of 
 anaesthesia. He makes no mention of Egypt.^ 
 
 Section VI. — Leprosy of the New Testament, 
 
 In the New Testament twelve cases only of leprosy 
 are mentioned, and ten of these must be considered 
 together under one head. i. The case of these ten is 
 mentioned only by St. Luke, xvii. 1^^-19, from whom 
 we might have expected some medical details ; but none 
 such are given ; the men are simply said to be lepers. 
 But that their disease was of the unclean type we infer, 
 not merely because they stood afar off while lifting up 
 their cry for mercy, but because they were directed to go 
 and show themselves to the priests. It is also deserving 
 of notice that the terms cleansing and healing seem to 
 be used as synonymous, for as they went they were 
 cleansed^ before seeing the priests ; and one of them, 
 being a Samaritan, when he saw that he was healed, 
 turned back to give thanks, glorifying God, and gave 
 occasion to the question of Christ, ' Were there not ten 
 cleansed, but where are the nine .? ' and to His command 
 to the Samaritan, ' Go thy way : thy faith hath made 
 thee whole ; ' without repeating the injunction to show 
 
 ^ He begins his chapter thus : * Ignotus autem psene in Italia, frequen- 
 tissimus in quibusdam regionibus, is morbus est quern iX^cpavTiaoiv Grasci 
 vocant : isque longis annume^'atur. Quo totum corpus afficitur ita, ut ossa 
 qnoque vitiari dicafitur' De Med. lib. iii. cap. xxv. 
 
44 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 himself to the priest.^ 2^. In the case of the single leper 
 that is mentioned in all the three Synoptic Gospels, he 
 is stated to have been in one of the cities with the 
 multitude following the Saviour, and yet is by St. Luke 
 said to be full of leprosy. In this case again the 
 term cleansing is used for healing, though the man was 
 enjoined to go and offer for his cleansing according to 
 the law. That St. Luke means by the words 'full of 
 leprosy'^ that the man was the subject of the severest 
 or inveterate form of disease, and not that he was merely 
 covered with the skin disease, is evident, because in the 
 latter case he would not by the Levitical law have been 
 required to present himself to the priest for cleansing. 
 3. The remaining case, that of Simon the leper, has given 
 rise to much discussion as to how the sitting at meat in 
 the house of a leper could be consistent with Jewish law 
 and custom. Some have sought to solve the difficulty by 
 supposing that Simon was designated *the leper' merely 
 from having once been leprous for a long time, and known 
 as such. But the more probable explanation seems to 
 be that his leprosy was of the clean type described 
 in Lev. xiii. 12, 13. 
 
 From these cases recorded in the New Testament can 
 any inference be drawn adverse to the view that we have 
 taken of the disease described in the Old Testament ? Is 
 there anywhere any indication whatever of the sufferers 
 
 1 Maundrell, one of the early travellers in Palestine, after mentioning other 
 cases of leprosy that he met with, says : 'At Sichem, near Naplos, there were 
 not less than ten lepers— the same number that was cleansed by our Saviour 
 not far from the same place— that came a-begging to us at one time. Their 
 manner is to come with small buckets in their hands to receive the alms of 
 the charitable, their touch being still held infectious or at least unclean. 
 Their whole distemper was so noisome that it might well pass for the 
 utmost corruption of the human body on this side the grave.' Journey 
 from Aleppo to Jerusalem, A.D. 1697. 
 
 ^ Luke V. 12, irKijprjs KenfMS. 
 
LEPROSY. 45 
 
 presenting any of the fearful signs of elephantiasis which 
 travellers have noted ? In His reply to John's disciples, 
 Christ, recounting His miracles of healing, speaks only 
 of the lepers being ' cleansed,'^ 2ind in answering the petition 
 of the single leper He said, ' I will, be thou clea7i' which 
 seems to convey the impression that removal of cere- 
 monial uncleanness was of more importance than the 
 cure of the disease. 
 
 We must again lay stress on the fact that at the time 
 when St. Luke wrote, medical science throughout the 
 East was undoubtedly Greek, though Galen, the great 
 medical authority, was not born till A.D. 130. It seems 
 therefore scarcely credible that St. Luke, himself a 
 physician, should have used the Greek word Xiirpa to 
 denote anything but the malady known to physicians 
 by that name, which certainly was a cutaneous disease, 
 but presenting a variety of aspects. Hippocrates (b. c. 
 460) makes no mention of elephantiasis, but treats of 
 the Greek Xiirpa under the plural term kiirpai, indicating 
 thereby that there were varieties, or, as Philo says, that 
 the disease was multiformis. 
 
 Section VII. — Contagion and Heredity, 
 
 Contagion. — Although it would be out of place in the 
 present work to enter on all the difficult and complicated 
 questions that arise in connexion with the etiology and 
 spread of true leprosy, a few words on these subjects seem 
 required in further elucidation of the view that we have 
 been led to take of the Levitical disease. If vv^e should 
 agree with those who maintain that modern leprosy is 
 not contagious in the ordinary sense, or communicable 
 through contact in ordinary or even intimate social in- 
 
46 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 tercourse, it yet might be granted that there is now 
 some reason for believing that by inoculation, or intro- 
 duction into the system in some other way, as by food 
 or water, an infectious agent may be the means of 
 contaminating the system, and thus be the vera causa 
 of disease which might only be developed after a greater 
 or less lapse of time. This latter view would be con- 
 sistent with the admitted fact, that in but few instances 
 has sufficient evidence been advanced in its support. On 
 the other hand, an overwhelming amount of evidence 
 exists against the spread of the disease by contagion in 
 its ordinary sense, which is quite inconsistent with what 
 we know of other contagious diseases, such as small- 
 pox, which rapidly spread when communicated through 
 the medium of a single infected person. For it is no- 
 torious that lepers may be found living for years in 
 populous districts, where never more than a very insig- 
 nificant proportion ever become affected. Nay, even of 
 leper families a small proportion only may suffer. Such 
 facts also militate strongly against the importance that 
 has been attached to peculiarities of locality, habits and 
 food, notwithstanding the statements that leprosy is 
 almost unknown among the nomadic races. 
 
 If, however, we adopt the view that leprosy is another 
 instance of disease induced by the presence of a particular 
 microbe or bacillus, as in so many other diseases now the 
 subject of absorbing interest to both the professional and 
 the non-professional public, we may account for most of 
 the facts adduced in support of the various theories ; 
 especially if we admit that there is reason to believe 
 that such microbes, or self-propagating infecting agents, 
 vary greatly in the rapidity with which they permeate 
 the body. For all observers allow that as a rule true 
 
LEPROSY. 47 
 
 leprosy is a disease of very slow development — though 
 it is difficult to grant to the incubative stage of a disease 
 thus induced a period of sometimes two or even eight 
 years, which Danielsson and Boeck assume.-*^ In the 
 Middle Ages it is certain that the belief in the contagion 
 of the ti'ne leprosy was very general, both among phy- 
 sicians and the common people ; but it is also true that, 
 as medical science advanced and the diagnosis of disease 
 became more definite and reliable, this opinion lost 
 ground and was at length abandoned. On this change 
 of popular belief, Brunelli, an Italian physician, aptly 
 remarks : * 1' opinione era contagiosa e non la malattia.' 
 Hirsch, as the result of his exhaustive study of the 
 disease, says, ' My conviction is that there is not a single 
 fact which tells decisively and indisputably for the con- 
 veyance of the disease by contagion.' Is there any 
 single fact in the Levitical record to prove that the same 
 cannot be said of tsaraath so far as regards persons? 
 and is not Brunelli's saying applicable here also ? Has 
 not the belief in the contagious character of the Levitical 
 disease originated mainly from two sources — (i) from 
 viewing the terms clean and unclean as synonymous 
 with contagious and non-contagious ; (2) from assuming 
 that the mediaeval leprosy was essentially the unclean 
 
 1 The following instance has been given in illustration of the doctrine of 
 infection through inoculation, and also of the prolonged period of incuba- 
 tion. Dr. Hillebrand narrates a case in Borneo, where a boy of European 
 parentage was accustomed to play with a leprous child of colour. The 
 native boy thrust a knife into the anaesthetic part of his body, which act was 
 immediately imitated by the white lad, with the same knife. The white 
 lad was soon after sent to Holland, where he grew to maturity, and nineteen 
 years later (!) developed the disease, returning to Borneo a confirmed leper. 
 \Reports fur7iished to the Hawaiian Gover?tment, Honolulu, 1886.) A 
 case has also been recently recorded by Dr. T. G. Gairdner, in which a child 
 appears to have been infected with leprosy through inoculation with virus 
 taken from a leprous vaccinifer. Brit. Med. Journal^ June 1 1, 1 88 7, p. 1 269. 
 
48 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 form of tsardath, translated AeTrpa by the LXX and 
 leprosy in the A. V., and adopting the prevalent mediae- 
 val belief as to the contagiousness of elephantiasis ? From 
 the Mishna it would appear that the Jews did not view 
 ^ven the unclean as contagious, for they allowed an un- 
 clean leprous bridegroom to remain with his bride during 
 the nuptial week. Certainly the very general adoption 
 by theologians of leprosy as a type of sin is more likely 
 to have arisen from the analogy presented by the deep- 
 seated, all-pervading, corrupting and mortal character 
 of mediaeval leprosy,^ than from anything that is said in 
 the Bible. If, however, none of the forms of tsardath 
 possessed any such characters, even allowing that some 
 of them were contagious or infecting, there appears no 
 sufficient ground for believing that tsardath was intended 
 in any special way to typify sin and its consequences, 
 whilst there can be no difficulty in seeing why it should 
 have occasionally been inflicted as a punishment for sin, 
 and made a reason for exclusion from the congregation. 
 For it was a disease of which a person carried about him 
 visible marks of a repulsive character, and perhaps in- 
 dicative of uncleanly habits. Augustine says that when 
 lepers were restored to health they were mundati, not 
 sajtati, because leprosy is an ailment affecting merely 
 the colour, not the health or the soundness of the senses 
 and the limbs. 
 
 The complication of elephantiasis with scabies is not 
 uncommon in Norway, and this, in the opinion of some, 
 has given rise to the belief that the disease in that 
 country is contagious. In like manner the association 
 
 ^ I have not been able to ascertain the exact date when this very wide • 
 spread notion originated. Dr. Greenhill, however, informs me that the idea 
 has been geii^iral from very early Christian times, [and therefore when Kiirpa 
 meant psoriasis']. Vide notes at the end. 
 
LEPROSY. 49 
 
 of scabies with psoriasis {vitiligo of Celsus) is mentioned 
 by several Greek authors, and gave rise to the statement 
 of Justin^ that the Hebrews were expelled from Egypt 
 on account of their ' itch/ though this is admitted to be 
 a slander. In Syria scabies is, in the present day, a 
 much more acute disease than it generally is in European 
 climes, and more rapidly assumes a pustular form, and so 
 gives rise to ulceration. 
 
 Heredity, — The subject of heredity is one that is in all 
 cases surrounded with difficulties. There may, however, be 
 said to be a considerable degree of unanimity of opinion in 
 favour of the transmission of true leprosy by way of inherit- 
 ance. This too was the view entertained by the Arabian 
 and mediaeval physicians. But direct transmission from 
 parent to offspring of actual disease or malformations 
 of particular parts, or peculiarities of organization, is one 
 thing, and the transmission of a particular diathesis or 
 disposition to contract particular diseases, which other 
 persons do not possess, is another thing. That true 
 leprosy is transmitted by this hereditary predispo- 
 sition^ if not by congenital seeds of the disease, seems 
 probable. There is but little difference of opinion 
 on the subject, though some observers incline more 
 strongly than others to the belief that there is some- 
 thing more than mere hereditary predisposition, or 
 proclivity to its development in favouring circumstances. 
 Hence the very general adoption of the principle of 
 segregation and the prevention of intermarriages with 
 the healthy. 
 
 Is there anything in the history of the Jews, from 
 the time of the Exodus to the present day, to show 
 that they are specially liable either to contract or 
 
 ^ Hist, xxxvi. 2. 
 D 
 
50 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 transmit either true leprosy or the various forms of 
 tsardath ? A negative answer must, we believe, be given 
 to this question, although there is reason to think that 
 certain races, particularly the negro race, are specially pre- 
 disposed to elephantiasis. We have cited Dr. V. Carter's 
 experience in India as regards the Jews, but we must 
 not forget the influence of climate and locality in 
 developing the disease de novo, of which, however, we 
 have little real knowledge. In certain places, as in 
 Jamaica, the Jews form a large proportion of the 
 sufferers, and it was of the disease there seen and in 
 America that Reill says, ' Lepra Judaica omnino diversa 
 est a lepra Americana.' If racial influences are in any 
 way powerful in the transmission of disease, we might 
 certainly have looked for far more evidence than exists 
 of hereditary tendency to elephantiasis among the Jews, 
 had that been the Levitical disease, especially when we 
 consider that notwithstanding their dispersion they have 
 continued a people apart. And had they any special 
 tendency to contract the disease, it is remarkable that, 
 so far as the writer knows, no case in our times has been 
 introduced by the Jews into this country, to which they 
 come from all the various lands where true leprosy 
 exists, whereas isolated cases have occurred and still 
 occur among British officers and others who have resided 
 where leprosy is endemic.^ 
 
 * We cannot refrain from making reference to the case of the heroic 
 Father Damien, which has excited so much painful sympathy. This 
 young Belgian Roman Catholic priest, after his ordination in 1873, volun- 
 teered his services in the leper settlement at Malakoi, one of the Sandwich 
 Islands. When he arrived there the lepers numbered 800, of whom between 
 400 and 500 were Romanists, and were dying from 8 to 12 per week. 
 After ministering to these for 13 years (I), in every possible capacity, spiritual 
 and tempoial, as doctor, cook, carpenter, and even grave-digger, he has 
 himself fallen a victim to the disease, and has resigned himself with the most 
 
LEPROSY. 51 
 
 As the result of a prolonged and independent in- 
 vestigation of this much disputed subject, the writer is 
 compelled to admit that he cannot hope to have cleared 
 up all the difficulties with which it is surrounded, 
 whilst on the principal point he has satisfied himself that 
 there is no sufficient evidence that elephantiasis is 
 denoted by any of the diseases described under the 
 head of tsardath, even if that fearful malady existed 
 in Egypt at the period of the Exodus. Throughout the 
 sacred volume there is no distinctly marked case of 
 elephantiasis described under the name of leprosy, nor 
 any which physicians would have so considered, had not 
 riy"}^ and AeTTpa been translated leprosy at a time when 
 the prevalent mediaeval disease was so called. In the 
 main the writer agrees with the conclusions at which 
 his learned friend Dr. Greenhill has arrived : ' That the 
 disease was, in the words of Philo, "multiform and change- 
 ful," modified by various complications, and comprising 
 several species more or less distinct ; that some of these 
 varieties were associated with a contagious element, and 
 others non-contagious, and that all the contagious species 
 rendered the patients ceremonially unclean ; that it was 
 not a special or miraculous disease, existing only in those 
 times and countries, but an ordinary malady, used occa- 
 sionally by God for miraculous purposes ; that it was not 
 incurable by human means, though troublesome and 
 obstinate ; that it was not hereditary, though a disease 
 of common occurrence among the Jews.' In further con- 
 firmation of the view here taken we may quote the words 
 of Dr. Stapfer, who entirely coincides in the opinion we 
 have formed of the Levitical leprosy, and says that in 
 
 touching Christian submission to all its well-known consequences, saying 
 daily to God, ' Fiat voluntas Tua.' 
 
 D 2 
 
5^ THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 our Lord's time lepers were excluded from the temple, 
 but not from the synagogue. They had, however, separate 
 seats assigned to them, and were required to enter first 
 and leave the last. They were never considered as 
 ' possessed.' ^ Then he says as follows : ' II est reconnu 
 aujourd'hui que ces precautions etaient fort exagerees ; 
 la maladie connue sous le nom de lepre n'est nullement 
 contagieuse. EUe pent seulement etre hereditaire. Se 
 presentait-elle sous une forme contagieuse chez les Juifs 
 de la Palestine ? C'est possible, mais il y avait certaine- 
 ment beau coup d'ignorance et de prejuges dans le degout 
 et I'horreur qu'inspirait un lepreux.' . . . ' Non seulement 
 elle (la lepre) est guerissable mais elle pent disparaitre 
 sans que le malade suive aucun traitement. C'est une 
 affection superficielle de la peau, fort peu douloureuse 
 et qui n'empeche pas la sante generale d'etre ordinaire- 
 ment bonne. Chez les Juifs on distinguait une premiere 
 guerison que Ton appelait "purification du lepreux." 
 Les ecailles qui avaient paru sur la peau, et y avaient 
 forme des disques blancs ou grisatres, se detachaient et 
 tojnbaient. Le malade etait dit " purifie" ou " nettoye." 
 Sa guerison n'dtait pas encore certaine^ mais le principe 
 pretendu contagieux avait disparu ; le danger etait passe ; 
 il rentrait dans la vie commune. Son premier devoir 
 ^tait d'offrir trois sacrifices : le premier etait dit d'ex- 
 piation, et le second de culpabilite ; le troisieme etait un 
 holocauste.' ^ The New Testament, the writings of 
 Josephus, and the Talmuds are the only sources of 
 information consulted by Dr. Stapfer, and in his opinion 
 the only ones to be relied on. 
 
 ^ Negaim, ch. xiii. hal. xii. 
 
 2 La Palestine au temps de Jesus Christ, par Edm. Stapfer; Paris, 1885, 
 3rd ed., pp. 245 et seq. 
 
LEPROSY. 53 
 
 Keeping in view the ver^ inadequate evidence of the 
 existence of elephantiasis in Egypt, in Moses' time, apart 
 from what it is sought to derive from the Biblical account 
 of the Levitical disease, we would recommend those who 
 may doubt the correctness of our conclusions to peruse 
 any of the elaborate descriptions of true leprosy in such 
 works as those of Carter and Daniellson, and then, with- 
 out giving heed to names, carefully peruse the Levitical 
 descriptions, or even merely read attentively such brief 
 sketches of the two diseases as we have given in a previous 
 page, and decide with which the Mosaic account most 
 nearly corresponds. 
 
 There is certainly nothing improbable in the supposi- 
 tion, considering the condition of the Jews in Egypt, 
 that they were liable to forms of skin disease, peculiar to 
 the land and their social status, which are unknown to 
 us. It is only quite recently that we have come to know 
 the disease called ' wool-sorters' disease.' ^ And all who 
 are familiar with cutaneous affections are quite aware 
 that the same disease is apt to vary considerably in its 
 outward signs. Seeing the difficulty there is in under- 
 standing the grounds for the ceremonial laws of unclean- 
 ness in other cases, it is not surprising if we are unable to 
 explain satisfactorily why one form of disease should 
 have rendered a person unclean whilst another form did 
 not. But if we consider such ceremonial laws to have 
 been enacted primarily from sanitary considerations, it is 
 easy to appreciate their value, and also to discern their 
 symbolical meaning and the spiritual instruction thus 
 imparted. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of leprosy we feel bound to 
 call attention to the humane and Christian efforts that 
 
 ^ See note at the end of the volume. 
 
54 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 are being made on behalf of the unhappy lepers of 
 the present day. Whatever view may be taken of their 
 disease, it must be admitted that it is essentially immedi- 
 cable, it is still TO 'naOos ovk Idcnixov^ that its victims are 
 the subjects of unspeakable suffering and misery, and that 
 almost the only hope presented to us for preventing its 
 spread or exterminating the evil is by segregation and 
 effectually excluding it from the camp and the congre- 
 gation. Of the benefits to be derived from segregation 
 both to the lepers themselves and to the community at 
 large there cannot be any doubt, whilst we have evidence 
 sufficient that the sufferers are amenable to Christian in- 
 fluence^ and are not beyond the reach of the Gospel of 
 our Lord and Saviour. We would especially commend 
 to the notice of Christian philanthropists the efforts made 
 by the ' Mission to Lepers in India.' The asylums at 
 Almora^ Dara, and elsewhere in India, are entirely sup- 
 ported by this society, and have under care above loo 
 lepers, at the cost of only about £6 per annum for each 
 adult. This accommodation is not, however, by any 
 means sufficient for the districts where the disease pre- 
 vails.^ In Norway, where it is still very prevalent, 
 
 ^ So called by Cyrill. Alex, in Cramer's Cat en. Grcec. Pair, in Nov. Test. 
 vol. ii. p. 43. 
 
 ^ From statistics in regard to lepers, in the Report rendered to the 
 Hawaiian Government, it appears that in a total population of 210,767,504 
 in various countries there were in 1885 124,924 lepers, or 5.9 in every 10,000 
 of the population. In consequence of a communication from the Under 
 Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1 862, an enquiry was instituted by a Com- 
 mittee of the Royal College of Physicians (of which the writer was a member) 
 into the whole subject of leprosy, with especial reference to the question of 
 contagion and the establishment of Leper Asylums. Evidence was obtained 
 from all our colonies and an elaborate Report made to the Government. From 
 this Report a mass of authentic and valuable information may be obtained. 
 The evidence that it affords is decidedly against the contagiousness of the 
 disease. By a rather singular coincidence the writer is again acting on a 
 similar committee in consequence of another communication from the 
 
leprosy; 55 
 
 leper hospitals and other less efficient methods of segre- 
 gation have been proved to be the most efficacious means 
 for diminishing the number of the sufferers. In the 
 Sandwich Islands, where the disease has spread with 
 fearful rapidity, it has been found absolutely necessary 
 to adopt the same means. It is in these islands that the 
 latest observations have been made respecting the 
 presence of specific spores or bacilli in the diseased 
 tissues of the infected ; but here too it is found that 
 change of residence to a non-leprous district is one of 
 the most effectual means of exterminating the plague. 
 What are the true etiological relations between microbes 
 and the several diseases with which they are associated 
 we have, however, yet to learn. ^ 
 
 Government on the question of the advisability of establishing Leper 
 Asylums and enforcing the principle of segregation. So great is the spread of 
 the disease in many of our colonies, and so persistent is the popular belief in 
 contagion and the necessity for enforced separation of the sufferers, that 
 Government is urged to legislate on the subject and make it penal for a 
 certified leper to be abroad. 
 
 ^ See further notes on Leprosy at the end of the volume. 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 
 
 Section I. — Plagues, 
 
 Several Hebrew words are translated by the word 
 plague in the Old Testament, and as used in both the 
 Old and New Testament the term is of very wide 
 signification. Indeed, this and corresponding terms, such 
 as pest and pestilence in modern language, have been 
 employed to denote not only various malignant diseases, 
 but also both moral and physical evil of various kinds. 
 The English word plague and the Latin plaga are de- 
 rived from the Greek TrAryy?], and this from the verb, 
 the radical meaning of which is to strike or smite. 
 When now used with the definite article to denote the 
 historic fatal form of epidemic malignant fever, it is 
 equivalent to the Greek Xot/xoy, and to the pestis and 
 pestilenza of modern language. Hippocrates and the 
 earlier medical writers do not appear to have used the 
 term with precision, as denoting only one form of 
 malignant epidemic disease. But what is now understood 
 as the plague or true 'bubo-plague' has characters as dis- 
 '^.-^inct as those of small-pox or scarlatina, and maybe traced 
 probably as far back as the third century B. C. Oribasius 
 gives a quotation from Rufus, showing that in the time 
 of a physician called Dionysius (about B. C. 277 ?), a certain 
 disease was known and described as ' pestilentes bubones 
 riiaxime letales et acuti, qui maxime circa Libyam et 
 Egyptum et Syriam observantur.' And the description 
 
PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 57 
 
 which Rufus gives of the disease, as seen by certain 
 physicians in Libya about the time of the Christian era, 
 leaves no doubt as to this being what is now called the 
 plague or true bubo-plague. It is therefore probable 
 that this pestilence existed in Egypt even in the time 
 of the Exodus, though there are no sufficient marks 
 given us in the Mosaic record to enable us to identify 
 any of the diseases spoken of as the plague with that 
 which is now so called, and whicli has from time to time 
 so fearfully ravaged various countries. There is abun- 
 dant evidence that the word which our translators havel 
 rendered by the term plague was employed to denote \ 
 divers calamities and diseases of various kinds, inflicted ] 
 by God. In Numbers xiv. 32 we read that ' those 
 men that did bring up the evil report upon the land 
 died by the plague before the Lord ; ' but we have no j 
 means of determining what may have been meant by \ 
 these words, though by the Jews very graphic descriptions 
 have been given of the symptoms in those who died. 
 
 In Numbe rs xi. 31 e t seq. we have an account of the 
 mortality that ensued on the eating of the quails given 
 to satisfy the people's lust for flesh. ' And there went 
 forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the 
 sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's 
 journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on 
 the other side, round about the camp, and as it were 
 two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the 
 people stood up all that day, and all that nighty and all 
 the next day, and they gathered the quails : he that 
 gathered least gathered ten homers ; and they spread them 
 all abroad for themselves round about the camp. And 
 while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was 
 chewed, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against the 
 
58 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 people, and the Lord smote the people with a very great 
 plague. And he called the name of that place Kibroth 
 Hattaavah, because there they buried the people that 
 lusted.' 
 
 The quail {cofurnix) belongs to the family Tetraonidce\ 
 and is still found in Egypt and Arabia Petrsea, and 
 indeed throughout the old world. The naturalist Has- 
 selquist considered the bird he saw in Galilee to have 
 special characteristics, and called it tetrao-Israelitorum ; 
 but Col. Sykes says ^ that our common quail is the \ 
 identical species on which the Israelites fed, and if so the 
 bird was then, as now, migratory, passing at certain seasons / 
 from one country and district to another in search of food. / 
 The quail has always been held as a delicacy at table, and 
 was an article of food with the Romans, though Pliny says'-^ 
 that there was a prejudice against it, based on the sup- j 
 position that it was often poisonous, from feeding on \ 
 hellebore and poisonous seeds, as in our time grouse 1 
 and other game have sometimes proved to be. Quails 
 are not very abundant with us, only visiting us in the 
 summer ; our chief supply comes from France. Vast 
 flocks pass over to the islands and shores on the Euro- 
 pean side of the Mediterranean, so that methods of 
 wholesale slaughter are had recourse to. There is 
 nothing therefore incredible in the Scripture state- 
 ment that the birds came with a particular wind in 
 enormous flocks, and covered the ground to a great 
 extent.^ In verse o^% where the term plague is used, the 
 words admit of being rendered, 'the Lord smote the 
 people with a very heavy stroke,' but the former part of 
 the verse implies that death ensued very rapidly on the 
 
 ^ Zool. Trans, vol. ii. 
 
 ^ Bewick states that they would be driven thither by a south-west wind 
 sweeping over Ethiopia and Egypt towards the shore of the Red Sea. 
 
PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 59 
 
 eating of the longed-for supply of flesh, for the people 
 died ' while it was yet between their teeth, ere it was 
 chewed.' It is therefore quite possible that the birds 
 may have met with deleterious food on their new feeding- 
 ground. But as figurative language, the words may merely 
 imply that the people had scarcely swallowed the food ere 
 they became ill ; and from the description of the enormous^ 
 numbers of the birds lying on the ground for days in that 
 hot country, it may well be that the flesh was more or ^ 
 less putrid when devoured by the greedy multitude. 
 
 The sudden advent of quails in vast multitudes in 
 such a locality, and the great mortality that directly 
 ensued on the eating of them, are quite sufficient to show 
 that it was by ' a very heavy stroke ' from the hand of 
 Jehovah that the people perished, that this was indeed 
 a 'sore plague' with which the murmurers were visited. 
 
 Prior to the miraculous destruction of Korah, Dathan 
 and Abiram, Moses in very remarkable words gives the 
 people a test whereby they might know that he had 
 been sent of God ' to do all these works : ^ If these men 
 die the common death of all men, or if they be visited 
 after the visitation of all men, then the Lord hath not 
 sent me. But if the Lord make a new thing, and the 
 earth open her mouth and swallow them up, with all 
 that appertain unto them, and they go down quick 
 into the pit, then ye shall understand that these men 
 have provoked the Lord.' 
 
 There appears to be here an important distinction 
 made between the stroke by which Korah and his fellows 
 were smitten and the subsequent ^ plague ' that destroyed 
 14,700 of the people. Yet it seems very improbable that 
 this sudden and fearful mortality resulted from any form 
 
 1 Numbers xvi. 28-30. 
 
6o THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 of pestilence with which we are acquainted. We are 
 not informed within what period of time so large a 
 number of people were carried off, but it would appear 
 to have been very brief. The command to Moses was 
 imperative : ' Get you up from among this congregation, 
 that I may consume them as in a moment ; ' and the 
 directions of Moses to Aaron were equally urgent : 
 ^ Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, 
 and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, 
 and make an atonement for them : for there is wrath 
 gone out from the Lord ; the plague is begun.' The 
 action of Aaron on receiving these instructions is 
 equally prompt and energetic. He ' ran into the midst 
 of the congregation ; and, behold, the plague was begun 
 among the people: and he put on incense, and made 
 an atonement for the people. And he stood between the 
 dead and the living ; and the plague was stayed.' 
 
 If this visitation was after the kind that visiteth all men, 
 the only forms of pestilence with Vv^hich we could, as at all 
 likely, compare it would be either the true bubo-plague or 
 Asiatic cholera. But though the Greek and Roman phy- 
 sicians have been supposed to have described the latter 
 disease, I am not aware of any evidence of cholera 
 having existed in Egypt in ancient times, nor indeed 
 have we any authentic information beyond the brief 
 reference which we have cited from Rufus, of the 
 existence of the true plague in Egypt B.C. It is not 
 considered at all certain that the Athenian epidemic 
 during the Peloponnesian war, described by Thucydides, 
 was the true or bubo-plague, of which the earliest 
 authentic records Hirsch thinks date only from the sixth 
 century.^ From that time and through the Middle 
 
 ^ Hirsch, ch. ii. ' Plague.* 
 
PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 6l 
 
 Ages it has prevailed not only as an epidemic but as a 
 pandemic disease, its headquarters having been Egypt, 
 Syria, and Asia Minor. 
 
 The black death of the Middle Ages, which ravaged 
 these islands, as well as other European countries, is 
 generally supposed to have been a form of bubo-plague 
 characterised by special features, notably vomiting and 
 spitting of blood and gangrenous inflammation of the 
 lungs, rendering the breath horribly offensive and pes- 
 tiferous. Other epidemiologists, however, consider the 
 black death, or black plague, as it was sometimes 
 called, to have been a distinct pestilence, originating in 
 Cathay (China), and which disappeared with the four- 
 teenth century. 
 
 The leading characteristics of true or bubo-plague 
 may be briefly stated as a highly contagious malignant ' 
 fever, attended by sudden and extreme prostration of all ■. j 
 the powers, a leaden, sunken look of the eyes, ery- ^\ 
 sipelatous inflammation of the skin, buboes, carbuncles, l 
 and petechial patches, with diarrhoea. It need scarcely 
 be noted that we have no evidence of any such symp- ? 
 toms in those instances of fatal plague recorded in thcr 
 Old Testament. / 
 
 Small-pox is a disease of comparatively recent origin,| 
 and typhoid fever and analogous fevers, to which the| 
 wars and famines of the Dark Ages gave rise and ren-! 
 dered so fatal, have been the attendants of social con-i ^ 
 ditions altogether different from those of the Israelites. 
 But whilst the outbreak of all forms of epidemic pes- 
 tilence may be more or less sudden in particular 
 localities, it is only as they spread among the people of 
 a district that any great mortality ensues, which again 
 diminishes as the epidemic gradually subsides. 
 
62 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 In making choice from the three forms of punishment 
 offered to David ^ for his numbering of the people, he 
 selected that of ' three days' pestilence,' saying, ' Let us 
 fall now into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies 
 are great: and let me not fall into the hand of man. 
 So the Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel from the 
 morning even to the time appointed: and there died 
 of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy 
 thousand men.' In the subsequent account of David's 
 contrition and offering of his burnt-offering, this pes- 
 tilence is spoken of as the plague. 'The Lord was 
 entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from 
 Israel.' 
 
 Here we have an account of a pestilence which more 
 
 / accords with the outbreak and spread of an epidemic 
 
 / disease throughout the land, lasting some days, the 
 
 / particular nature of which it would be vain to discuss, 
 
 \ but which may have been brought about by some sudden 
 
 atmospheric change, as in certain severe outbreaks of 
 
 fatal influenza. 
 
 There is nothing in the great mortality attending the 
 scriptural instances at all unlike that which has been 
 seen in epidemics of the bubo-plague. In the London 
 epidemic of 1625 no less than 34,000 died, and in 1665, 
 since which time the disease has disappeared from our 
 country, 10,000 died; 40,000 in Marseilles in 17:20, and 
 43,000 in Messina in 1743. In many cases death occurred 
 within twenty-four hours, and in many more within the 
 third to the sixth day. Such visitations have generally 
 lasted many months, and the mortality has always been 
 greatest at the commencement. The same may be said 
 of Asiatic cholera. But in all the mortahty has been 
 
 ^ 2 Sam. xxiv. 12. 
 
PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 6^ 
 
 spread over a much longer period than in the case of 
 any of the Biblical plagues. r 
 
 What interpretation we are to put on the vivid j 
 description of Zechariah,^ of the plague with which the ^. 
 Lord threatens to ' smite all the people that have fought \ 
 against Jerusalem,' it is very difficult to say. ' Their flesh ^ 
 shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, ^ 
 and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and | 
 their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.' If ^ 
 the description be not altogether metaphorical, may it 
 be intended to describe an army dying of famine ? For 
 the subsequent verses show that the same plague was to 
 fall on the cattle of the enemy, as in the fifth plague 
 of Egypt there was to be a grievous murrain of cattle. 
 
 We need not refer to various passages where moral 
 evil is spoken of as a plague, such as i Kings viii. 37, 38, 
 where ' the plague of his own heart,"* which every man 
 should know, is associated with famine, pestilence, and 
 whatsoever plague and whatsoever sickness there may 
 be among the people. The wicked, we are told in Ps. 
 Ixxiii, * are not in trouble as other men, neither are they 
 plagued like other men.' 
 
 From time immemorial the various pestilences with 
 which nations have been visited have been looked on as 
 Divine judgments, which they have sought to avert by 
 sacrifices, penances, and prayers. And this acknowledg- 
 ment may have been the origin of the use of the word 
 plague, or stroke, as applicable to all and every form of 
 destructive pestilence, and even of every special indi- 
 vidual affliction. 'The arrow that flieth by day' is a 
 figurative expression used by the Arabs, who speak of 
 the pestilence as ' God's arrow, which will always hit His 
 
 ^ Zech. xiv. 12. 
 
64 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 mark,' and ' What, is not the plague the dart of Almighty 
 God, and can we escape the blow that He levels at us ? 
 Is not His hand steady to hit the person He aims at?' 
 
 Section II.— Boils aiid Blains. 
 
 The sixth plague with which Pharaoh and the people 
 of Egypt were visited for refusing to let the Israelites 
 depart is thus described in Exodus ix. 8, et seq. : ' And 
 the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you 
 handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle 
 it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. 
 
 'And it shall become small dust in all the land of 
 Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains 
 upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of 
 Egypt. 
 
 * And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before 
 Pharaoh ; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven ; 
 and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon 
 man, and upon beast. 
 
 ' And the magicians could not stand before Moses 
 because of the boils ; for the boil was upon the magicians, 
 and upon all the Egyptians. 
 
 ' And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he 
 hearkened not unto them ; as the Lord had spoken unto 
 Moses.' 
 
 The word which our translators here render boils is by 
 the Septuagint termed ^Xky], elsewhere rendered sore, or 
 ulcer, the Hebrew word being ]''nip. Blains in the 
 Greek is rendered ^\vKTihe^, phlyctencs of medical writers, 
 the Hebrew being lyn^nSl. 
 
 In the tenth verse the words, ' and it became a boil 
 breaking forth with blains/ are in the Greek kyhero eXK-q 
 
PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 65 
 
 0XvKTt66s avaCeovo-ai. These words have been by some 
 authorities rendered, ' they became cutaneous eruptions 
 accompanied by inflammation' breaking out. By 
 Dathe the Hebrew is rendered ' ulcera tumescentia,' and 
 by Rosenmuller 'inflammatio pustulas emittens.' The 
 same Greek word cAko? is used to designate Hezekiah's 
 disease, called boil in the A.V. This seems to be the 
 most appropriate rendering in the case of the plague now 
 under consideration ; and the Old Saxon Word dlam, 
 which is equivalent to bleb, or blister, is equally appro- 
 priate to express the sense oi phlyctence. 
 
 Boils and carbimcles are analogous diseases ; their 
 pathology is essentially the same, so far as regards the 
 character of the inflammation occasioning the local affec- 
 tion. In both it is attended by much heat and pain, and 
 in both leads to death or sloughing of the central parts, 
 constituting in the boil what is called the ' core,' and in 
 carbuncles to more extensive gangrene and sloughing 
 both of the deep-seated structures and of the skin itself, / 
 so as to produce an extensive and deep open ulcer of 
 a formidable character. 
 
 Boils^ however [fzirunculi), are generally a compara- 
 tively trifling disease and unattended by constitutional 
 disturbance. They may occur either singly, or in suc- 
 cession, are more frequent at certain seasons than at 
 others, and sometimes assume an epidemic character. 
 For the most part they are confined to particular regions 
 of the surface, though occasionally distributed over the 
 body. During the early stage of acute inflammation, 
 the point of the swelling is often occupied by a small 
 blister, and after the dead tissues have obtained exit 
 there remains, for some time, a small scar marking the 
 central spot. 
 
 £ 
 
66 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 A carbuncle is always a much more formidable disease. 
 Anthrax and charbon (Fr.) are the nosological terms by 
 which it is now commonly designated. The local inflam- 
 mation is generally considered to have a specific character, 
 i.e. induced by a poisoned or morbid state of the blood, 
 and therefore associated with constitutional symptoms 
 endangering the life of the patient. The most usual seat 
 of the local inflammation is the back, or back of the 
 neck, and the swelling from the first is more extended 
 and undefined than in the case of an ordinary boil. A 
 vesicle or vesicles arise on the prominent livid portion 
 of the swelling, which after bursting and discharging 
 a thin serum, reveal numerous openings, whence a 
 purulent discharge issues for some days, till at length 
 more or less extensive portions of dead tissue slough out, 
 and leave a deep excavated ulcer. The scar after healing 
 is generally more or less uneven, livid, and permanent. 
 There is a particular carbuncular disease often called 
 ' malignant pustule,' which requires notice for our present 
 purpose, because it prevails among cattle and is very de- 
 structive. It is sometimes called 'splenic fever,' and, accord- 
 ing to modern pathological views, is due to the presence in 
 the blood of a particular microbe termed bacillus anthracis. 
 Having been frequently communicated to man by the 
 handling of wool from the diseased sheep, it is sometimes 
 called ' wool-sorters' disease,' and in Siberia the ' Siberian 
 plague.' 
 
 This disease, when occurring in man, so far as we at 
 present know, is derived either from direct or indirect 
 transmission from the lower animals, horned cattle or 
 sheep. It appears to be endemic in certain regions, and 
 often assumes an epidemic character. It has been in- 
 vestigated with remarkable skill and success by the 
 
PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 67 
 
 distinguished man whose name and reputation are world- 
 wide, M. Pasteur. Among other remarkable discoveries 
 he has shown that this particular bacillus may be propa- 
 gated in the earth around the carcases of buried infected 
 animals, and then brought to the surface through the 
 medium of earth worms, and thus distributed on the 
 pasture where animals previously healthy are feeding. 
 Treatment has hitherto proved of little value where the 
 disease has taken possession of the system, and preven- 
 tion becomes all-important. But this is surrounded by 
 difficulties in consequence of the infecting agent being 
 often imported from a distance by means of wool, hair, 
 and hides. Thus, from time to time, we have outbreaks 
 of anthrax in this and other countries that prove fearfully 
 destructive to our cattle, and entail serious loss to the 
 agriculturist. . 
 
 We have no records of epidemic boils or carbuncles in ; 
 ancient literature, that I am aware of. But since the early 
 part of the last century there have been various accounts 
 of such outbreaks in which boils, carbuncles, and whitlows 
 have been intermixed. In the latter part of the eighteenth 
 century, and since then, numerous histories have been 
 given of Oriental boils and various sores, which have re- 
 ceived special names from the countries in which they 
 occurred and from other circumstances ; thus we have 
 the Aleppo boil, the Bagdad sore, and in Delhi a boil 
 disease has been prevalent from time immemorial which 
 is now named ' Arungzebe/ after the prince who reigned 
 there in the eighteenth century, and who is said to have 
 died of the boil. The so-called Aleppo boil is still 
 prevalent, not only in Syria and Mesopotamia, but also 
 at Suez and Cairo, as well as in Central Asia. A very 
 general opinion obtains that in all the places where the 
 
68 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 disease exists, it is of local endemic origin, and is intro- 
 duced to the bodies of the people by the drinking water ; 
 facts which strongly support the theory that it is of 
 parasitic origin, whether the original habitat of the 
 parasite be in the water or the soil. 
 
 In connexion with the last observation, it is deserving 
 of notice that the sixth plague of boils and blains was 
 inflicted after the miraculous conversion of the water of 
 all the rivers and streams and ponds into blood, whatever 
 interpretation may be given of that word ; so that the 
 fish that was in the river died, and the river stank, and the 
 people loathed to drink of the water. But, apart from all 
 consideration of the question of parasitic organisms, it is 
 fair to infer that the health of the people may thus have 
 been so deteriorated as to render them prone to disease, 
 especially as the murrain of cattle followed the drinking 
 of the foul water, and exposed the people to the well- 
 known risks from the consumption of diseased meat. 
 Nor must we forget the nature of the other plagues that 
 preceded the sixth, the plagues of frogs, lice, and flies. 
 The health of the whole country, so far as regarded the 
 Egyptians, could not fail to have been seriously afl*ected 
 thereby. The frogs, we are told, ' died out of the houses, 
 out of the villages, and out of the fields. And they 
 gathered them together upon heaps, and the land stank.' 
 Of the lice it is said, ' All the dust of the land became 
 lice in man and beast.' By the fourth plague, 'there 
 came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, 
 and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of 
 Egypt ; the land was corrupted (or destroyed) by reason 
 of the swarm of flies.' The conclusion seems inevitable 
 that by such dire inflictions the whole country must have 
 become so insalubrious as to render the inhabitants apt 
 
PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 69 
 
 recipients of almost any disease, whilst the Israelites, 
 shut up in the land of Goshen, were protected even from 
 the flies that pass so easily through the air, and had no 
 need to feed on tainted cattle. We are not told what 
 intervals may have elapsed between the several plagues, 
 but the consequences would be such as assuredly would 
 not prove of short duration as regards the health of the 
 people. Without, therefore, throwing doubt on the 
 miraculous character of the sixth any more than of the 
 other plagues, we are justified in concluding that the 
 Egyptians were in such a state of deteriorated health as 
 to render them eminently predisposed to the different 
 forms of carbuncular disease. It is only in accordance 
 with the action of the Divine Governor in other instances 
 to make natural laws subservient to His special purposes, 
 whether of mercy or judgment. 
 
 In support of the view that the boils and blains of this 
 sixth plague may have been analogous to the anthrax 
 now known as the splenic disease of cattle, it is desei*ving 
 of notice that the immediately preceding plague was thel 
 murrain by which 'all the cattle of Egypt died.' On 
 the parasitic theory, the Egyptians by contact with and 
 eating of such cattle might become infected with the 
 bacillus anthracis, or some similar microbe, and present 
 the well-known phenomena of boils and blisters. It 
 must, however, be observed that no mention is made of 
 any ensuing mortality. It is merely said that the 
 * magicians could not stand before Moses because of the 
 boils ; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all 
 the Egyptians.' 
 
 Attempts have been made to identify this sixth plague / 
 with the small-pox. But in the first place it must be 
 affirmed that we have no evidence whatever that the 
 
7CJ THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 variola, or small-pox, existed in the Mosaic era. That 
 it existed in China before it was known in Europe is 
 generally allowed, and immemorial traditions are said to 
 exist among the Brahmins of its existence in India, and 
 it has been conjectured that it was from India that the 
 disease passed both into Europe and Africa. The 
 keenest discussions have been held as to whether the 
 disease was known to the earliest medical writers. 
 Rhazes in his treatise of the tenth century, De Variolis 
 et Morbillis} is believed to be the first medical authority 
 who gives an unambiguous account, and who quotes frag- 
 ments from an Alexandrian physician Ahron, of the date 
 of the fifth or sixth century. But Rhazes and subsequent 
 writers speak of the disease as generally known through- 
 out the East. Those who, like Dr. Baron in his life of 
 Jenner, have taken the view that small-pox was the sixth 
 Egyptian plague, have attributed great importance to 
 a passage from Philo the Jew, who lived in the first 
 century, and who has given us a description of the plague 
 of boils and blains according to his view.^ 
 
 The passage from Philo is as follows : ' Clouds of dust 
 being suddenly raised, and striking against both man and 
 beast, caused ill-looking ulcers over almost the whole skin ; 
 so that immediately an efflorescent eruption made its 
 appearance on the surface of the body, which became 
 swollen and abounding with purulent pustules, and which 
 you might almost think boiled in consequence of some 
 sudden heat ; but if they suffered thus much in body, 
 they suffered more, or certainly not less, in mind, being 
 oppressed and worn down with pain and anguish, as 
 there appears reason, on account of the inflammation 
 and ulceration. For to one regarding those cases, in 
 
 ^ Eng. Trans, by Greenhill. Syd. Soc. 1848. ^ Vita Mosis, i. 22. 
 
PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 7 1 
 
 which the pustules were scattered over the body and 
 limbs, and run together in one mass, it appeared as if 
 they were a continual ulcer from head to foot/ Whether 
 this passage justified Dr. Willan in saying that it con- 
 tains a lively and accurate description of small-pox may 
 be doubted. But even so, there is still more doubt 
 whether it can be justly applied to the plague of boils 
 and blains as described by Moses. Nor would this 
 application receive further support, were we to attempt 
 any more detailed description of so well-known a disease 
 as small-pox, which could not have failed to entail so 
 great a mortality among the people as to have demanded 
 mention by the sacred historian. 
 
 Section III. — Fevers find Inflammations, 
 
 The Hebrew, Greek and Latin words for fever all 
 indicate a burning heat, and it is from the Latin febris 
 that our word fever has been derived. Along with this 
 characteristic feature there are associated quickness of 
 pulse and disturbance of function of the various organs 
 of the body in all fevers. 
 
 Febrile disorders are among the most common diseases^ 
 of the East, and have been from the earliest times. 
 They are, however, of various kinds and of different! 
 origin. In many cases the febrile symptoms are only 
 symptomatic of some local inflammation, though by] 
 non-professional observers they would often be called 
 simply fever. In others the fever originates in some 
 specific deleterious agent, introduced from without and 
 acting as a poison on the whole system, giving rise 
 either to a febrile state lasting continuously for a definite 
 period; as in typhus or small-pox, or to an intermittent 
 
7^ THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 febrile condition, as in common ague. To determine to 
 which of these kinds of fever any particular case should 
 be referred, would require much more detailed descrip- 
 tions than are given to us in the Bible. We know, 
 however, that malarious diseases, which are more or less 
 distinctly intermittent or remittent in character, have 
 from the earliest times been prevalent both in Egypt 
 and Palestine. We know also that epidemic fevers of 
 a contagious kind, and spreading independent of local 
 causes, have from time to time prevailed, constituting 
 often what we have spoken of under the head of plagues. 
 
 In Deut. xxviii. 21, 22 we may perhaps discern all 
 these forms of fever. In verse 21 we read, ' The Lord 
 shall make the pestilence (OdvaTos) p^7) cleave unto 
 thee, until He have consumed thee from off the land.' 
 (A. and R. V.) This may very probably be supposed to 
 denote either the true Oriental plague, or an analogous 
 epidemic destroying multitudes of people. The * con- 
 sumption' (aTTopta), if it refer to disease at all, may imply 
 the hopeless wasting hectic fever of pulmonary and 
 some other diseases. ' And with a fever ' (A. V.) [irvpeTos) 
 may denote some form of continued fever ; * and with an 
 inflammation' (A. V.)(/3ty^t), the rigor and following heat 
 of intermittent malarious fever, as this is the Greek 
 word used by Hippocrates to denote a paroxysm of 
 ague. 'And with fiery heat' (R. V.) or an 'extreme 
 burning' (A. V.) (epe^icr/xw), some of the various forms of 
 cutaneous inflammation, attended by heat and irritation, 
 such as what is called ' prickly heat.'' This appears 
 to be the sense in which the word was employed by 
 Hippocrates. 
 
 In Leviticus xxvi. 16 we have again consumption 
 allied with ' burning ague ' in A. V., and with ' fever ' in 
 
PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 73 
 
 R. v., and by the LXX rendered \j/(opa, a word used by 
 medical writers to denote ' itch,' which is often attended 
 by great heat and irritation. 
 
 The writing which the prophet Elijah sent to King 
 Jehoram^ says, 'Behold, with a great plague will the 
 Lord smite thy people and thy children and thy wives 
 and all thy goods. And thou shalt have great sickness 
 by disease of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by 
 reason of the sickness day by day.' There can be little 
 doubt that epidemic dysentery is here denoted. The 
 fever and inflammation of the lining membrane of the 
 bowels which attend that disease are often of a very 
 severe character, and marked by such discharges from 
 the bowels as to lead the ignorant to suppose that the 
 bowels themselves are cast out. In Jehoram's case the 
 disease assumed a chronic form ere it ended fatally. 'And 
 after all this the Lord smote him in his bowels with an 
 incurable disease. And it came to pass, that in process of 
 time, after the end of two years, his bowels fell out by 
 reason of his sickness: so he died of sore diseases.'^ 
 
 In Acts xxviii. 8 we have recorded the healing of 
 the father of Publius by the apostle Paul. This man 
 in the A. V. is said to have lain ' sick of a fever, and of 
 a bloody flux,' and in the R. V. ' of fever and dysentery.' . 
 But St. Luke employs the plural {iTvpeTols) in describing 
 the fever, and doubtless does so with his usual accuracy. 
 It is not, however, very clear what is implied by this use 
 of the plural form. It is well known that dysentery is 
 frequently associated with malarious intermittent fevers ; 
 it is therefore possible that the plural form was used to 
 
 ^ 2 Chron. xxi. 12 et seq. 
 
 ^ It would only be in accordance with medical experience if in such a case i 
 portions of the intestines had mortified and been cast out. 
 
74 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 indicate merely the recurring paroxysms of the aguish 
 disease ; or it may imply that in addition to the febrile 
 signs of the malarious disease, the severity of the 
 dysentery kept up that state of fever which accompanies 
 all forms of inflammatory disorder, and that the patient 
 had thus a double form of fever, symptomatic and 
 essential, as they would be termed. 
 
 The words (Truperos juteya?) used by St. Luke ^ to charac- 
 terise the ' great fever' of which Simon's wife's mother lay 
 sick, has very properly been cited as another instance in 
 evidence of the accuracy of language employed by the 
 physician when speaking of disease. Fevers were divided 
 by Galen and the Greek physicians into greater and 
 lesser, and there can be little doubt that the disease, in 
 this case, was some form of continued and probably 
 malignant fever. The miraculous nature of the cure is 
 therefore more manifest, when it is said that * imme- 
 diately she arose and ministered unto them.' For on the 
 ordinary subsidence of a 'great fever' the debility and 
 prostration are such that many days would elapse ere the 
 invalid would be capable of rising to minister. 
 
 So again in the case of the nobleman's son (John 
 iv. 5:2), who was at the point of death when Jesus said 
 to the distressed father, ' Go thy way, thy son liveth,' 
 we are told that at the same hour the fever (irvperos) 
 left him. Assuming from the single word employed 
 to designate the disease that it was in this instance also 
 a continued fever rapidly passing to a fatal termination, 
 the sudden departure, not mere amendment of the fever, 
 could only have been miraculous. The nobleman 
 enquired of his servants who met him the hour when 
 his son ' began to amend ;' and they replied, ' Yesterday at 
 
 ^ Luke iv. 38, 39. 
 
PLAGUE AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 75 
 
 the seventh hour the fever left him,' that being the hour 
 at which Jesus had said, ' Thy son liveth.' The supposi- 
 tion that the sudden departure of the fever merely 
 indicated the termination of a paroxysm of intermittent 
 fever seems inconsistent with the whole tenour of the 
 account given us. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 OPHTHALMIC DISEASES AND BLINDNESS. 
 
 The special observances with regard to the blind that 
 are mentioned in the Old Testament, would indicate that 
 they were a numerous class at the time of the Exodus. 
 * Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander out of 
 the way.' In the New Testament we not only have 
 special instances of our Lord's giving them sight, but 
 repeated references, in general terms, to the blind as a 
 class, who found in Jesus evidence of His Messiahship by 
 their recovery of sight at His hands. 
 
 It is notorious that ophthalmic disease and blindness 
 have always been very common in the East, and are so 
 still. Egyptian ophthalmia has long been known as one 
 of the most severe and destructive forms of inflammation 
 of the eye. In proof of this it is only necessary to refer to 
 the military annals, both English and French, of the Na- 
 poleonic and other Egyptian campaigns. Various causes 
 have been assigned for its prevalence in Egypt and other 
 Eastern climes, especially intensity of light and heat, 
 together with searching winds filling the air with fine 
 sand and other irritating matters, which may be sufficient 
 to account for its wide-spreading prevalence at certain 
 times. But the Egyptian ophthalmia is also contagious 
 and communicable by the transfer of the purulent secre- 
 tion from one eye to another. By this kind of ophthal- 
 mia the sight is often rapidly destroyed, and even the 
 
OPHTHALMIC DISEASES. 77 
 
 whole eye disorganised. It has sometimes spread with 
 fearful rapidity as an epidemic through multitudes of 
 people, leaving no small numbers permanently blind. 
 
 We cannot, however, suppose it to have been by any 
 such form of disease that either the men of Sodom or 
 the Syrian army, as recorded 2 Kings vi. i8, were struck 
 blind. The infliction was doubtless miraculous in both 
 cases, and in the latter may possibly have taken the 
 form of temporary amaurosis, i.e. sudden paralysis or 
 suspension of function of the optic nerve, to be after 
 a while restored. This also may probably have been the 
 case with St. Paul (Acts ix). The intensity of the bright 
 light from heaven may have been sufficient to destroy 
 the functional power of the optic nerve to a degree that 
 would have been permanent but for its gracious restora- 
 tion by the hands of Ananias. When it is said that 
 'immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been 
 scales,' the language is evidently metaphorical. 
 
 We are also disposed to regard the case of Elymas as 
 one of temporary loss of the visual function. (Acts xiii. 1 1 .) 
 St. Paul, addressing him, said, ' Behold, the hand of the 
 Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the 
 sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist 
 (ax^vs) and a darkness (o-kotos) ; and he went about seek- 
 ing some to lead him by the hand.' Some have sought 
 to explain the first word, translated ' mist,' as indicating 
 such opacities of the cornea as frequently result from 
 disease. But Hippocrates uses a similar term to indicate 
 murkiness or gloom, and it would seem more natural 
 to understand it here as describing the man's first sensa- 
 tions ere he became more completely dark. 
 
 The case of the two blind men who followed our Lord,^ 
 
 ^ Matt. ix. 27-31. 
 
78 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 addressing Him as ' Thou Son of David/ and crying for 
 mercy, does not admit of any confident opinion as to the 
 cause of their blindness. There is no ground for sup- 
 posing that they were congenitally blind, but rather that 
 they were among the many others who had long been 
 permanently blind from disease. That they afford us 
 a signal illustration of the power of faith in the Divine 
 Physician cannot be doubted. When they came to Him 
 in the house, Jesus said unto them, ' Believe ye that I am 
 able to do this? They said unto Him, Yea, Lord. 
 Then touched He their eyes, saying. According to your 
 faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened.' 
 That touch must have had a virtue in it unknown to any 
 surgeon oculist, or mesmerist, and unpossessed by any 
 remedial agent. 
 
 The case of Bartimaeus^ seems altogether analogous 
 to that of the two men just mentioned ; but the blind and 
 dumb man of Matt. xii. 22 appears to have been a case 
 of demoniacal possession, who, when healed, both spake 
 and saw, and gave occasion, as did Bartimaeus, to the 
 admission that the great Healer was indeed the Son of 
 David, predicted to give sight to the blind. 
 
 Cataract is the most frequent cause of congenital 
 blindness, and this we may with great probability assume 
 was the nature of the case of the man blind from his 
 birth, recorded in the ninth chapter of St. John's Gospel, 
 who was well and publicly known to be blind. The 
 case is remarkable, not only from the signal and miracu- 
 lous nature of the cure, but also from the judicial enquiry 
 that followed, and from the solemn and impressive 
 discourse of our Lord to which it gave occasion, as well 
 as to the wrath and angry discussion of the Pharisees. 
 
 ^ Luke xviii. 35-43 ; Mark x. 46-52. 
 
OPHTHALMIC DISEASES. 79 
 
 Whether cataract, or any other form of congenital defect, 
 was the cause of the blindness, it is impossible to suppose 
 that it was by any inherent virtue in the subsidiary 
 means employed, no doubt for wise reasons, by the 
 Divine Healer, that sight was given to ' one born blind/ 
 'As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the 
 world,' said Jesus. ' When He had thus spoken, He 
 spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He 
 anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and 
 said unto him. Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which 
 is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way therefore, 
 and washed, and came seeing.' ' And it was the Sabbath 
 day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.' 
 Were such proceedings enjoined by our Lord with the 
 view of rendering manifest His exercise of supernatural 
 power and the inadequacy of the natural agents em- 
 ployed? Or was it more signally to condemn the 
 Pharisaic making void the law, and to show that the Son 
 of Man was Lord of the Sabbath ? 
 
 The case mentioned by St. Mark \ where the restoration 
 to sight was not at once complete, but by a double 
 exercise of Divine power, seems still more distinctly to 
 show that the cure was not due in any way to the natural 
 external means employed. The description given by this 
 man, when only partially in possession of sight, that * he 
 saw men as trees walking,' rather indicates that he had 
 not always been blind. It was only when Christ had 
 put ' His hands again upon his eyes, and made him look 
 up,' that ' he was restored, and saw every man clearly.' 
 The word * restored ' (aTroKareord^r]), whilst showing that 
 sight had at one time been possessed, throws no light on 
 the cause of the blindness. Cataract, when not strictly 
 
 ^ Mark viii. 22-26. 
 
8o THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 congenital, often occurs very early in life, at three or four 
 years of age ; and had this been the case here the man 
 might have retained some knowledge of sight. But it is 
 more probable that sight had been lost by some of those 
 forms of inflammation or other ophthalmic disease which 
 were common, and had occurred at a more advanced age. 
 In either case, had the cure been by ordinary means, sight 
 would not have returned immediately, but gradually. Had 
 the case been one of cataract of the congenital kind, some 
 time would have been needed to admit of the man's learn- 
 ing to judge both of form and distance. In Chesleden's 
 well-known case of a child on whom he operated at the 
 age of 14, and who had been blind from birth, the lad at 
 first had no judgment of distance, or the shape of things, 
 whatever might be their size or form, and only gradually 
 acquired a knowledge of things by sight alone, requiring 
 for some time to aid his judgment by the sense of touch. 
 The blind of our day have reason to be thankful for 
 the efforts that are made to enable them to come to the 
 knowledge of Him who is ' the light of the world/ though 
 deprived of the ordinary means of becoming acquainted 
 with His revealed truth. It is said that in Cairo there 
 are now thousands of blind, and that in the island of For- 
 mosa they amount to seven or eight thousand. For the 
 blind in Formosa there has recently been produced a 
 Chinese primer in raised type, to enable them, as well as 
 those in our own land, to read the Scriptures in their 
 native tongue, and thus to look on Him who, not only 
 still gives sight to the blind, but also teaches His disciples 
 to be imitators of Himself. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 Section I. — Lunacy and Demoniacal Possession, 
 
 Although it is beyond the scope of this little volume 
 to discuss the subject of Biblical psychology, a few remarks 
 from a medical point of view are called for on some of 
 the cases recorded, both in the Old and New Testaments, 
 which would fall under this head. Science has not yet 
 been able to solve the mystery of the natural and normal 
 relation of mind to matter by which our daily life is 
 characterised and influenced. Still less is it competent 
 to deal with what we are compelled to call the super- 
 natural. That lunacy is in a large proportion of cases 
 associated with recognisable material changes in the 
 brain, and often the direct result of cerebral disease, 
 cannot be questioned. But that perverted or dethroned 
 reason may not in other cases be the direct result of 
 Divine interposition science is not in a position to deny. 
 Nor can those who receive the Bible in any true sense 
 as a Divine revelation doubt that it teaches the exist- 
 ence of angelic beings, both good and evil, who are 
 commissioned or permitted to exercise powers that we 
 can only call supernatural. Theologians may be unable 
 to account for the origin of evil, or to tell us how and to 
 what extent the ' principalities and powers and the rulers 
 of the darkness of this world ' can exercise their evil 
 
 F 
 
S2 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 agency, but they cannot deny either the existence of 
 such agents or that they are permitted in some way or 
 other to take part in the Divine government. There is 
 a kingdom of Satan, though subservient to the kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 Whether there be in the present day such a thing as 
 demoniacal possession, in the sense in which it was 
 understood in the time of our Lord, we are not called 
 upon to enquire ; although it may be admitted that 
 there is not a little in the manifestations of many cases 
 of lunacy that may well give rise to the question whether 
 Satanic agency has not some part therein. Religious 
 men of the most irreproachable character, and women 
 of unsullied purity of thought and habit, will use 
 language, entertain ideas and manifest conduct altogether 
 opposed to their character in a sane state, and which 
 become the source of the utmost pain and distress of mind 
 when restored to reason. But such cases, or even certain 
 specific forms of insanity which have been designated 
 by such terms as * theomania ' and ' caco-demonomania,' 
 afford little or no help towards an explanation of many 
 of the instances of possession by devils recorded in the 
 New Testament. Nor does it appear to us possible, on 
 any principles of medical science, to refer these to any 
 known form of bodily disease. In several passages in 
 the Gospels they are distinctly separated from ordinary 
 diseases, and especially by St. Luke, the physician, when 
 recording the interview between John's disciples and our 
 Lord, ' In that hour He cured many of diseases and plagues 
 and evil spirits.' ^ In Matt. iv. 24 we have not only diseases 
 in general, but also lunacy, specifically distinguished 
 from ' divers diseases and torments.' But our Lord's 
 
 1 Luke vii. 21. (R.V.) 
 
DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 83 
 
 own language is decisive of the question. He commands 
 the unclean spirit to come out of a man — speaks of 
 ' casting out devils ^ — suffers others to enter into a 
 herd of swine — of ' the unclean spirit, when he is 
 gone out of a man, walking through dry places,' of 
 'taking to himself seven other spirits more wicked 
 than himself ; ' in this last instance clearly denoting, not 
 any particular disease, but ' spirits ' in the plural number. 
 Language such as this it seems impossible to interpret in 
 a figurative or popular sense. Doubtless many of the 
 demoniacs may truly be said to have been insane, and 
 in one instance he is called ' lunatic,' ^ and manifested 
 epileptic symptoms similar to what are seen in epileptic 
 maniacs of the present day. In another instance, after 
 being cured, the man is said to be ' sitting clothed, and 
 in his right mind.' But the whole subject of demoniacal 
 possession we do not attempt to discuss. 
 
 Section II. — SauFs Disease, 
 
 There is not a more melancholy history recorded in 
 the Bible than that of the first King of Israel, nor any- 
 where a more striking dramatic contrast of character ^ 
 than that afforded by Saul and his successor David. 
 
 When they were first introduced to each other,^ Saul 
 must have been considerably past middle age, and, even 
 if unacquainted with the anointing and designation of 
 David, had been told that his kingdom had been rent 
 from him and ' given to another better than he.' He 
 knew that he was rejected of God, deserted by his faithful 
 friend the prophet, and that his authority was discredited. 
 His pride was deeply wounded, he was conscious of a 
 
 ' Matt. xvii. 15, a0^r]via.^tra.i. See note at the end of the volume. 
 2 I Sam. xvi. 14 et seq. 
 
 F 2 
 
84 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 wilful rebellious spirit, was the subject of bitter remorse 
 on account of his transgressions, harassed by wars and 
 troubles of state, wearied in body and agonised in mind. 
 ' The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil 
 spirit from the Lord troubled (terrified) him.' 
 
 David was a happy youth, of buoyant poetic tempera- 
 ment, ' ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, 
 and goodly to look to,' upon whom, after his anointing, 
 ' the Spirit of the Lord came from that day forward.' 
 
 ' God's child, with the dew 
 On thy gracious gold hair.'^ 
 
 There is great difficulty in reconciling the account given 
 in the sixteenth chapter, of the interview between the 
 aged monarch and the stripling shepherd, with that 
 recorded in the following chapter, which took place after 
 David's victory over Goliath. Both have the appear- 
 ance of being the description of a first interview. 
 Perhaps the most probable, but by no means satisfactory 
 solution, is to suppose that the king had, on the second 
 occasion, through mental infirmity, forgotten the name 
 and aspect of the youthful victor, so as to make it needful 
 for him to ask, ' Whose son art thou, thou young man ? ' 
 But Abner also, who must have known that David had 
 for some time stood before the king, seems to have been 
 equally ignorant, and had to be told to enquire. 
 
 The question, however, for us is, What was the nature 
 of the king's distemper when his ' servants said unto 
 him. Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. 
 Let our lord now command thy servants which are 
 before thee to seek out a man who is a cunning player 
 on an harp; and it shall come to pass when the evil 
 spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his 
 
 * Browning's Saul. 
 
DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 85 
 
 hand, and thou shalt be well/ To this Saul assented 
 and ' one of the servants said, Behold, I have seen a son 
 of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, 
 and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and 
 prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the Lord 
 is with him ; ' whereupon the son of Jesse, being sent for, 
 * came to Saul and stood before him : and he loved him 
 greatly ; and he became his armour-bearer.' 
 
 Were these servants of Saul his physicians, and if so, 
 what did they mean by ' an evil spirit from God ? ' Did 
 they mean to imply that their master was the subject of 
 demoniacal possession ? But why should an evil spirit ' 
 from the Lord any more imply supernatural agency than 
 the ' Spirit of the Lord ' which departed from Saul, or 
 the ' Spirit of the Lord ' which came upon David from 
 the day of his unction? Josephus, by using the term^ 
 haiixovia in connexion with Saul's case, seems to indicate 
 that he looked on it as demoniacal possession ; and it 
 is quite possible that Saul's servants may have taken 
 the same view. But the words of the sacred writer do 
 not necessarily imply more than that Saul was given up 
 to suffer the natural consequences of his own rebellious 
 spirit and evil mind, which, preying on itself, terminated 
 in mental derangement. If this be the correct view, it 
 would none the less deserve to be considered as a puni- 
 tive dispensation from God. That the disorder was not^ 
 in the ordinary acceptation of the term supernatural may 
 be inferred, both from the subsequent history and fromj 
 the nature and success of the treatment adopted. This\ 
 was exactly what would now be held to be the most' 
 appropriate and sensible in that form of mental derange- 
 ment usually designated as melancholia. 
 
 That this was the form of Saul's mental disorder there 
 
/ 
 
 [ 
 
 86 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 can be little doubt, and such opinion has been very 
 generally adopted. It is a very common form of in- 
 / sanity, and is characterised by great mental depression, in 
 j which the patient feels his whole existence overwhelmed 
 V by gloom and anxious forebodings. It is chiefly seen in 
 the aged or in those past middle age, rarely in young 
 persons. Though not always to be attributed to 
 assignable moral causes, it frequently supervenes on 
 grief, losses and disappointments, worry and anxiety. 
 In many instances the bodily health for a time may not 
 seem to be much impaired, but in pronounced cases 
 /sooner or later is seriously deranged. The mental de- 
 / pression may pass off gradually or suddenly, to recur, or 
 not, at uncertain intervals, from various causes. If the 
 malady grows worse, delusions of various kinds supervene, 
 or the case may take on some other type of insanity 
 marked by excitement. The most common delusions 
 are such as have a religious character, often giving rise 
 to an unfounded belief that religion is the cause of the 
 insanity. The patient imagines that he is the subject of 
 some loathsome or incurable disease, that his affairs and 
 prospects are ruined, that he has committed the un- 
 pardonable sin, that he is the object of Divine vengeance, 
 that he is eternally lost, body and soul, and that life is 
 no longer endurable. But even in the milder forms and 
 early stages of the distemper the tendency to commit 
 suicide is so common and persistent as to demand the 
 i most strict and unintermitting watching of the sufferer 
 by night, as well as by day. A large proportion of the 
 cases of suicide publicly recorded are from this kind of 
 mental disorder. This is the more lamentable because 
 they might often have been prevented, and because this 
 form of insanity is more amenable to treatment than 
 
DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 87 
 
 many others, a large proportion of cases being cured, 
 though the disorder is apt to recur under the influence of 
 any depressing cause, whether moral or physical. 
 
 It is not necessary to assume, nor, indeed, does it seem 
 probable, that much of the cruel and tyrannical conduct 
 that marked the latter part of Saul's career resulted from 
 actual insanity, though it must be remembered that he 
 had frequent fits of melancholic depression, and ulti- 
 mately ended his life by suicide. David's success and 
 growing popularity made him an object of jealousy and 
 suspicion to Saul, who became afraid of him, plotted 
 against him, laid snares for him, and more than once 
 attempted his life. But the open way in which he 
 spake of David, and gave orders that he should be slain, 
 and especially the way in which he met Jonathan's 
 remonstrance and intercession, and his capacity for 
 appreciating the noble conduct of David, are at all 
 events inconsistent with the view that he was contin- 
 uously insane. The homicidal attacks on David when 
 playing before him 'with his hand, as at other times,^ 
 are not, indeed, such as very often characterise melan- 
 cholia, but they are occasionally seen, for, as we have said, 
 that form of mental disorder is apt to assume another type. 
 Such homicidal outbursts are not therefore inconsistent 
 with the whole of the later portion of Saul's history. 
 
 Change of scene and occupation and the society of 
 cheerful and judicious companions are the most effica- 
 cious and all -important means in the treatment of 
 melancholia and in 'ministering to a mind diseased.* 
 From time immemorial the soothing influence of music 1 
 has been acknowledged and employed in cases like/ 
 Saul's. As such it was recommended by his servants/ 
 or physicians, and proved on the first, as well as on 
 
88 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 subsequent occasions, to be efficacious. Moreover we 
 are told that from the first, when David stood before 
 Saul, that ' he loved him greatly.' The musician there- 
 fore was evidently a persona grata at such time, which 
 would be all-important to the efficacy of the remedy 
 employed. The harpist was also a valiant youth, not to 
 be disconcerted by angry looks or outbreaks of temper, 
 ' prudent in matters,' and knew that ' the Lord was with 
 him,' to direct and aid him when seeking to afford the 
 desired relief. 
 
 Thus when the sweet singer took up his harp and 
 played with his hand, ' Saul was refreshed, and was well, 
 and the evil spirit departed from him.' What the music 
 was, or what the psalms that were sung, we know not. 
 Was it an impromptu of the twenty-third psalm to 
 
 * The tune all our sheep know, as one after one 
 So docile they come to the pen-door, till folding be done'^ 
 
 with which the musician sought to soothe the monarch's 
 troubled spirit ? Or what other psalm and strain did he 
 choose — 
 
 *Ay, to save and redeem and restore him . . . 
 Saul, the failure, the ruin he seems now . . .?*^ 
 
 Section III. — Nebuchadnezzar' s Disease, 
 As King Nebuchadnezzar walked in the palace of the 
 kingdom of Babylon, he spake, and said, ' Is not this great 
 Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by 
 the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty ? 
 While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice 
 from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is 
 spoken ; The kingdom is departed from thee. And they 
 shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with 
 the beasts of the field : they shall make thee to eat grass 
 * Browning's SauL ^ Idem. 
 
DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 89 
 
 as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou 
 know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, 
 and giveth it to whomsoever He will. The same hour 
 was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he 
 was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his 
 body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were 
 grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds'claws.' ^ - 
 
 Various symbolical and fanciful interpretations have 
 been offered of this remarkable judgment that befell the 
 great King of Babylon. By some it has been supposed \ 
 that he underwent an actual metamorphosis of body and I 
 soul. Jewish rabbins have asserted that his soul hy\ 
 transmigration entered into the body of an ox ; others, / 
 believing the fables of the fifteenth century, of men^ 
 transformed into wolves, have concluded that the king's / 
 case was an analogous instance. These and similar 
 views are, however, clearly untenable. That the kingX 
 became insane there can be no doubt, and that his 
 insanity was characterised by wild violence, so as to 
 render him dangerous to society and make it necessary ^ 
 to expel him, may be inferred from the words of the ' 
 judgment, 'they shall drive thee from men, and thy 
 dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field.' It is not 
 distinctly stated that he was the subject of any specific 
 delusion ; but we can have little doubt that the opinion 
 most commonly entertained is correct, and that his\ 
 insanity was attended by that kind of delusion which 1 
 led him to fancy that he was changed into an ox./ 
 Similar insane delusions are not infrequently met with. 
 
 There is much in the history of this monarch that 
 would warrant the supposition that his mental derange- 
 ment was the result of his unbridled passions, his pride, 
 
 ^ Daniel iv. 29 et seq. 
 
90 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 ambition, worldly success* and exaltation. In certain 
 forms of insanity the earliest indications are exaggerated 
 and false notions of the individual's importance and 
 position in life, together with a general exaltation of 
 views. But whatever may have been the influence of 
 such predisposing causes as may be admitted to have 
 existed, we cannot read the whole history without seeing 
 that the ultimate dethronement of reason was a part of the 
 judgment predicted, and that it was attended by features 
 that must have been peculiarly humiliating and degrading 
 to a grand and mighty king. This was acknowledged by 
 the king himself in the public proclamation that he 
 caused to be sent to all his subjects, and in the confession 
 that he makes when restored : ' Now I Nebuchadnezzar 
 praise and extol and honour the King of Heaven, all 
 whose works are truth, and His ways judgment : and those 
 L that walk in pride He is able to abased 
 
 Among the various delusions of the insane, none are 
 more common than those which relate to their bodily 
 sensations and condition. Modifications in the sensation 
 of self are not infrequently met with, and lead to the idea 
 of personal transformation. Former personality may be 
 ignored and patients imagine themselves lords, dukes, and 
 kings, or animals, cocks, wolves, dogs, or oxen, whilst at 
 the same time their real personality is retained. Some- 
 times they fancy the material structure of their body to be 
 changed, and to have become wood or glass. Thus in 
 what has been termed ' lycanthropia,^ the ' wehr wolf ' of 
 the Germans, the delusion consists in the belief that the 
 patient has become a wolf. Cases of this kind are said 
 to have occurred in Alsatia in the fifteenth century, the 
 patients running about on all fours, howling and attacking 
 children ; and there are others mentioned in the classics 
 
DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 9 1 
 
 analogous to that of the King of Babylon. Virgil tells\ 
 us that the daughters of Proetus, believing themselves to / 
 be cows, ran into the fields and / 
 
 'Implerunt falsis mugitibus agros,'* 
 
 If by ' seven times' we are to understand seven years 
 that the king was exiled from human society, there is 
 not much difficulty in understanding other features of 
 his case. When it is said, ' Let a beast^s heart be given 
 unto him,' let him be deprived of reason and believe 
 himself an ox is probably all that is meant. Eating 
 grass like an ox does not necessarily imply that he had 
 no other food. Driven from men, and the object of dread 
 and aversion, he may still have been an object of com- 
 passion, or may have been able to obtain fruits or grain. 
 Buteating grass and all kinds of garbage is not uncommony 
 with the insane. From long neglect and exposure to \ 
 the dews of heaven, it is not surprising that his hair I 
 should have * grown like eagles' feathers and his nails as ' 
 birds' claws.' When long uncut and neglected, and after 
 much exposure to the weather, the hair becomes coarse\ 
 and more or less matted, so as to resemble feathers ; and 
 in like manner the nails, if not pared, will attain to a \ 
 length of 1 4 or even 2 inches, and curve round the ends 
 of the fingers and toes, as may often be seen in many 
 of the Chinese, and thus resemble a bird's claws. 
 
 It has been objected that such insanity as that of 
 Nebuchadnezzar would have rendered him incapable of 
 praying. It is, however, well known that many of the 
 insane will attend public worship, and practise private 
 prayer, as before their loss of reason. It would, how- 
 ever, rather seem that it was only after his restoration 
 that the king is represented to have prayed. 
 
 * Eclog. vi. 48. 
 
92 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 That his reason had been dethroned the king was 
 quite aware when 'at the end of the days/ he says, 
 'I lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine under- 
 standing returned unto me, and I blessed the Most High, 
 and I praised and honoured Him that liveth for ever/ 
 ' He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, 
 and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can 
 stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou ? ' 
 Thus the first use that he made of his restored reason 
 was to acknowledge the justice of the Almighty Ruler 
 of men, and offer a song of praise for the mercy vouch- 
 safed him. 
 
 Section IV. — Paralysis and Palsy, 
 
 These terms, if not absolutely synonymous, are often 
 used interchangeably. Palsy is popularly used to denote 
 a loss of motor power in a muscle or set of muscles, and is 
 then equivalent to motor paralysis. In this sense it 
 seems to be employed in the Authorised Version of the 
 New Testament. Where there is loss of power to 
 transmit sensory impressions to the brain, it would be 
 called sensory paralysis. If we restrict both terms to 
 the loss of motor power, we shall find that this may 
 depend on disease of the brain, spinal cord, or particular 
 nerves, and that this may result from simple mechanical 
 injury or morbid changes, whether local or general, in- 
 volving the system at large, and manifested through the 
 nervous system. In some cases the paralysis depends on 
 temporary causes capable of removal, in others, and more 
 frequently, on such alteration of structure as involves 
 permanent loss of function. These latter are by far the 
 most common, and therefore ordinarily a person who is 
 
DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 93 
 
 said to be palsied is permanently disabled in some way. 
 Two of the most common forms are when either one side 
 of the body is affected (hemiplegia) or the lower limbs 
 {paraplegia). 
 
 In the latter case, when pronounced, all locomotion is 
 prevented ; and if, as sometimes happens, the arms are 
 also paralysed, these also would be useless, and the 
 subject unable to help himself in any way. 
 
 It seems probable that this last most serious and 
 hopeless form of disease characterised the case of ' one 
 sick of the palsy' who was borne of four and brought to 
 our Lord for healing at Capernaum.^ That it was no 
 slight form of disease, which might only in popular 
 language be called palsy, is shown by the special term 
 (TTapakeXviJiivos) employed by the Evangelist Luke, as 
 this is the correct technical Greek word for pronounced 
 paralysis from disease of some part of the nervous system. 
 That the subject was an adult we infer from four men 
 being required to carry him, and that he was young, 
 Bengel thinks, is implied by the word son (riKvov) used by 
 our Lord when first addressing him, saying, ^ Thy sins be 
 forgiven thee.' But is it therefore necessary to assume 
 that his disease was the direct result of any special sin, 
 or of an immoral life, any more than in the case of the 
 impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, who was enjoined 
 to ' sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee?' 
 
 But whatever may have been the nature of the cause 
 by which this complete loss of power was brought about, 
 it was evidently such as no known means of medical 
 treatment could have effected the cure of instantaneously, 
 if at all. The miraculous character of the cure is evident 
 not only from the rapidity with which it was effected, 
 
 ^ Matt, ix ; Mark ii ; Luke v. 
 
94 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 but also from the evidence we have that muscular power 
 of robust health was so completely gained as to enable 
 the man not merely to raise himself up and walk, but 
 also to carry a load. This would have been impossible 
 in any known form of long-standing paralysis, even had 
 it been functional only, as in what is called hysterical 
 paralysis, in which, however, there is never that complete 
 loss of all power here indicated, and where it is mainly 
 the will that is at fault. 
 
 Similar evidence of the miraculous nature of the cure 
 is afforded by the case of ^neas, recorded in Acts ix. ^^, 
 who ' had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the 
 palsy/ when Peter said to him, '^Eneas, Jesus Christ 
 maketh thee whole : arise, and make thy bed. And he 
 arose immediately.' No satisfactory explanation of such 
 cures can be given by medical or any natural science. 
 If the authenticity of the facts be admitted, we are 
 compelled to refer them to the category of the super- 
 natural. 
 
 In the centurion's servant who, according to St. Matthew,^ 
 lay 'at home sick of the palsy (paralytic), grievously 
 torme7ited^ and whom St. Luke describes ^ as ' sick and 
 ready to die,' we have probably a case of progressive 
 paralysis, attended by muscular spasms and involving 
 the respiratory movements, where death is manifestly 
 imminent and inevitable. Such a case would be attended 
 by symptoms indicative of great distress as well as 
 immediate danger to life. 
 
 The impotent man at the pool of Bethesda,^ one of 
 the 'great multitude of impotent (sick) folk, of blind, 
 halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water,' 
 has also been thought to have been the subject of palsy; 
 
 ' Matt. viii. 6. ^^ Luke vii. 2. ^ John v. 2-9. 
 
DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 95 
 
 but of this there is much reason to doubt. He is said 
 to have 'had an infirmity thirty-and-eight years;' but 
 that this did not incapacitate him for all movement is 
 shown by his own words, ' while I am coming another 
 steppeth down before me.' Among the *hait and 
 withered ' there would very probably be cases of chronic 
 rheumatism and joint disease and other w^asting (wither- 
 ing) diseases, which would be likely to benefit by the 
 waters, whatever opinion may be entertained of the 
 authenticity of verse 4. For such diseases, as well as for 
 various forms of nervous affections, baths were anciently 
 in repute, and the words ' of whatsoever disease he had ' 
 seem to imply that the waters were had recourse to for 
 various maladies. There does not, therefore, appear 
 sufficient evidence to enable us to say confidently that 
 this man's disease was either locomotor ataxy or other 
 chronic hopeless nervous disease, or indeed what it was. 
 But the miraculous character of the cure is suf^ciently 
 shown by the fact that the man was made at once so 
 ' perfectly whole ' as to be able to take up his bed and 
 walk.^ 
 
 The case described by St. Luke xiii. 11-17 ^f ' 3- 
 woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, 
 and was bowed together, and could m no wise lift up 
 herself,' I cannot consider, as some have done, to have 
 been a case of paralysis strictly so called. For in the 
 first place, though recorded by the Evangelist Luke 
 alone, he does not call it palsy, which he pretty certainly 
 would have done, as in the case at Capernaum, had it 
 been such. The woman's condition is very characteris- 
 tically described as bowed down and quite unable to lift 
 
 ^ Some have maintained that this man was an impostor whose feigned 
 disease our Lord exposed. 
 
()6 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Up herself, although in the synagogue among the other 
 attendants. ' And when Jesus saw her. He called her to 
 Him and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from 
 thine infirmity. And He laid His hands on her : and 
 immediately she was made straight! Her case seems in 
 all probability to have been such an one as is not un- 
 frequently met with in the present day, even in the streets, 
 in which there is a gradual wasting and relaxation of the 
 muscles and ligaments of the back, by which the trunk is 
 held erect, so that the body falls forward, without there 
 being any disease either of the brain or spinal cord or 
 any mental impairment. Such cases are chiefly met with 
 in the aged, and are progressive and permanent in cha- 
 racter, admitting of very little relief by medical science. 
 We are not called to offer any opinion as to the import 
 of our Lord's words, ' whom Satan hath bound.' The 
 case, however, does not appear to have been what would 
 be called demoniacal possession, and the words ' loosed 
 from this bond' appear specially appropriate to the 
 view that we have taken of her ' infirmity.' 
 
 Various opinions have been entertained as to the 
 nature of the case of the man ' whose right hand was 
 withered.'^ Withered or blighted limbs are often met 
 with in the present day. One of the more common 
 forms is that which is frequently called infantile 
 paralysis, the result of disease in early life, occasioning 
 arrest of development of a particular limb, without other 
 permanent bad result, but which leaves the limb shrunk 
 and withered. There are similar cases which are con- 
 genital. In other cases a like result follows direct 
 injury to the main nerve of a limb, the further develop- 
 ment and nutrition of which are impeded, and the limb 
 * Matt. xii. 9-T3 ; Mark'iii. 1-5; Luke vi. 6-1 1. 
 
DISEASES OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM. 97 
 
 becomes wasted or withered. To any of these forms of 
 withering may the case recorded by the three evangelists 
 be referred. There is also a form of disease termed 
 dropped hand, to which painters and others working 
 in lead are liable, as the result of lead poisoning. 
 Although some of the milder of such cases recover, 
 others permanently disable the patient. To such cases, 
 however, the term withered is not strictly applicable, nor 
 do we think that they offer any satisfactory explanation 
 of the case in question. 
 
 We hear much in the present day of faith healing, of 
 cures wrought by relics or at the shrines of saints, by 
 pretended agencies and imaginary forces, mesmeric, 
 odylic or other, by healing virtue emanating from 
 particular persons to other people, all of which, in 
 various ways, demonstrate the marvellous influence 
 exerted by mind on body. Without questioning the 
 power of that kind of faith that can remove moun- 
 tains, there can be no doubt that a large pro- 
 portion of reputed faith-cures are fallacious, and will not 
 stand the scrutiny of competent investigation. But no 
 thoughtful and experienced physician can doubt that 
 through mental influence of some kind, not only are the 
 normal functions of the body, but also diseased actions, 
 controlled, and sometimes even life preserved. Such 
 influence is most frequently seen in connexion with 
 mental and nervous diseases of a functional character, 
 though sometimes of long standing and to ordinary 
 observers of a serious and irremediable nature. 'It 
 is therefore quite conceivable,' as Bishop Temple 
 has observed,^ ' that many of our Lord's miracles of 
 healing may have been the result of this power of mind 
 
 ^ Bampton Lectures. Relations of Religion and Science, pp. 199 et seq. 
 
 G 
 
98 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 over body.' ' It is possible that they may have been due 
 not to an interference with the uniformity of nature, but to 
 a superiority in His mental power to the similar power 
 possessed by other men.' That there is considerable 
 difference in the power which different men possess in 
 controlling the actions of their own bodies, in enduring 
 pain, in resisting depressing and exhausting influences 
 and even the progress of disease, there can be no 
 question ; nor that there is a similar difference in the 
 degree of mental power which different men can exert 
 over the bodies of other men. But even if we should 
 suppose that the cures of disease by our Lord were thus 
 wrought, they would be scarcely less miraculous. For 
 His miracles of healing were wrought on forms of disease 
 and in ways that do not admit of explanation by any 
 such exercise of mental power as we possess. The 
 power that could arrest disease of a mortal character 
 and recall to life by a word spoken at a distance, and 
 that could raise the dead to life, was a spiritual force of 
 a different order from that possessed by any mesmerist, 
 magician, or mortal man. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 DISEASES OF JOB, HEROD, HEZEKIAH, JEROBOAM, 
 AND THE SHUNAMMITE WOMAN'S SON. 
 
 I. Job'^s Disease. — This is described in Job ii. 4 et 
 seq. : 'And Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin 
 for skiii, yea all that a man hath will he give for his life. 
 But put forth Thine hand now, and touch his bone and 
 his flesh, and he will curse Thee to Thy face. And the 
 Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand ; but 
 save his life. So went Satan forth from the presence of 
 the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of 
 his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to 
 scrape himself withal ; and he sat down among the ashes/ 
 
 The terms here employed to describe Job's sore 
 affliction are evidently not such as to admit of our 
 forming any very confident opinion as to what the nature 
 of his disease was. But they are sufficient, along with 
 the subsequent history, to show that it entailed great 
 suffering and demands on his constancy of endurance and 
 submission. But whilst his physical condition was such 
 as to grievously impair his bodily health, his mental 
 powers were retained. A very general belief has obtained ^ 
 that his disease was the true leprosy, the elephantiasis 
 Grcecorum, This opinion dates as far back as Origen, 
 when it was said that Job was afflicted dypto) l\i(^avTi^f 
 r<j> ovro) KoXov^jLivio vodrnxaTi} The Hebrew ]^n?^, which) 
 * Contra Celsum, book vi. chap. 43. 
 G % 
 
lOO THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the LXX translate IAko?, admits of being rendered ' sore ' 
 or ^burning sore,' the radical meaning only implying 
 burning or inflammation, the hot sense of pain which 
 accompanies various forms of cutaneous disease. 
 
 The same Hebrew word occurs in Deut. xxviii. ^5, 
 and in various other places in the Old Testament, 
 and is always rendered by the LXX by the same Greek 
 word ; but our translators use the term ' botch ' in 
 Deut. xxviii, ' The Lord shall smite thee in the knees 
 and in the legs with a sore botch that cannot be healed, 
 from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.' 
 / Johnson describes ' botch ' as ' a swelling or eruptive 
 y discoloration of the skin."* It can scarcely be said to be 
 a medical term, and when used by Milton seems to be 
 synonymous with patch, ' botches and blains must all 
 his flesh emboss.' As derived from the Italian dozza, 
 it would imply either a swelling or a rough unfinished 
 piece of sculpture or painting. If this is what our 
 translators meant when using the word, it might be held 
 as an appropriate description of some of the cutaneous 
 signs of elephantiasis. They do not, however, thus 
 translate the same Greek word ikKos when speaking of 
 Job's disease, but render eAxet irovrip^ * sore boils.' Their 
 reason for this is not apparent, but whatever may be 
 meant by the Hebrew ]*'ntp here, or by the words 
 ' from the sole of his foot unto his crown,' it seems almost 
 impossible to believe that the eruption on the skin was 
 either what we should call ulcers or boils, when it is said 
 that Job sat down among the ashes and used a potsherd 
 /to scrape himself with. A potsherd might be used to 
 / remove incrustations of dried matter, or to relieve the 
 I intolerable irritation and itching of various inflamed or 
 scaly eruptions. For the latter purpose the natives of 
 
THE DISEASE OF JOB. : ! , ;\'^ T; Aol ! 
 
 the South Sea Islands are known to use, in the present 
 day, a bivalve shell. But there are other features of 
 Job's lamentable state deserving of notice, such as the 
 emaciation (xvi. 8), nights sleepless, and scared with \ 
 frightful dreams (vii. 14), ' Thou scarest me with dreams, | 
 and terrifiest me through visions/ These are character- 
 istic symptoms in true leprosy, and so also is the loathing^ 
 of life : ' So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death 
 rather than my life. I loathe it ; I would not live 
 alway.' The words too of Satan demand special notice, 
 * Put forth Thine hand now, and touch his l?07ie and his 
 flesh,' as indicating the deep-seated nature of the disease. 
 So also we read that on the approach of his friends, 
 ' When they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him 
 not, they lifted up their voice and wept ; and they rent 
 every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their 
 heads toward heaven.' This leads us to infer that his 1 
 disfigurement was such as to make him not only un-^ 
 recognisable by his friends, but also to appal them, 
 which, as we have seen when speaking of elephantiasis, is 
 a not unfrequent effect of that terrible disease. 
 
 There is considerable difference of opinion both as to 
 the age of the Book of Job and his residence. If, how- 
 ever, he lived after the Israelites had entered the Promised 
 Land, we should certainly have expected his disease to 
 have been differently described, had it been the so-called 
 Levitical leprosy, and thus are afforded an additional 
 argument against that disease being elephantiasis, if 
 such was Job's disease. There are, however, other views 
 that have been taken of Job's malady. Burns, in hi^^ 
 account of Bokhara, where the guinea-worm disease j 
 exists, says that it is there spoken of by the inhabitants / 
 as 'the disease of Job.' Of that very remarkable and 
 
toi :; ' ; ^ ' ' ; ; 'the iDiSEASES of the bible. 
 
 grave parasitic disease we propose to speak under the 
 head of Fiery Serpents. But we must own that we can- 
 not see any analogy between it and the patriarch's 
 disease. It has also been suggested that his malady 
 may have been that peculiar Oriental sore known as the 
 
 * Aleppo or Bagdad eviU 
 
 That Job's disease was indeed a sore and loathsome 
 
 one is evident, and we are perhaps justified in assuming 
 
 that it was altogether of an exceptional character. We 
 
 are told nothing of its removal, and its invasion is related 
 
 in connexion with difficult and mysterious subjects, into 
 
 which it is not our duty to enter. The antiquity and 
 
 purport of the book, on which there is so much difference 
 
 I of opinion, and the metaphorical character of much of 
 
 I the writing, all render it extremely difficult to speak with 
 
 confidence on the precise nature of the disease, which 
 
 \ constituted so much of the patriarch's suffering and trial. 
 
 II. The Disease of Herod Agrippa I, — This able but 
 
 unprincipled man, history informs us, had led a licentious 
 
 and extravagant life, and it was on the occasion of 
 
 a great festival, when surrounded by his grandees, that 
 
 the occurrences described in Acts xii. ^i-o^'^ took place. 
 
 * Upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat 
 upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And 
 the people gave a shout, saying. It is the voice of a 
 god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of 
 the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the 
 glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the 
 ghost.' Josephus,^ in recording the same event, does 
 not mention worms as the cause of death, but says 
 what helps us materially in deciding the nature of the 
 disease, for he states that the king was suddenly seized, 
 
 1 Antiq, Jud, xix. c. viii. sec. 2. 
 
THE DISEASE OF HEROD AGRIPPA I. IO3 
 
 and, after suffering severe and tormenting pains in the 
 bowels, in five days died. The two accounts considered 
 together leave scarcely any room for doubt that the 
 cause of death was perforation of the bowels by intestinal 
 worms, inducing ulceration and acute peritonitis. Medical 
 records contain such cases, and the condition of the 
 stomach and bowels after indulgence at a feast would 
 favour the occurrence of the fatal termination at such a 
 time. Any abnormal distension of the bowels, especially 
 if associated with bodily exertion, would be sufficient to 
 account for rupture of the intestines at spots previously 
 eroded and thinned by ulcerative disease. And there is 
 scarcely any suffering more severe than that which 
 attends peritoneal inflammation thus induced. The term 
 used by Luke the physician to describe the disease 
 leaves no doubt, I think, that it was occasioned by worms 
 (o-KwAr^Ko^/ocoTos), and that there is no foundation for the 
 notion that it was what the Greeks call phthiriasis, morbus 
 pedicularis. In other parts of Scripture crKCdKr)^ is the 
 word used to denote worms, as in Exod. xvi. 2,0, their 
 manna bred worms and stank ; in Deut. xxviii. 39, of the 
 grapes, 'the worms shall eat them ; Job vii.5, ' My flesh is 
 clothed with worms and clods of dust' Herodotus^ speaks 
 of the mother of Arcesilaus being destroyed alive by 
 worms, possibly in the same way as Herod was ; but he 
 uses another word, €vkri, which, however, also means 
 worm or maggot, such as are bred in decaying flesh, and 
 not the word whence the Greek term for morbus pedi- 
 cularis is derived, which means ' louse.' 
 
 The account which Josephus gives of this most im- 
 pressive narrative, as quoted by Bengel, is so graphic 
 that we venture to give it in full. ' Clad in a garment 
 
 ^ Hist, iv. 205. 
 
104 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 which was all woven of silver^ by marvellous workmanship, 
 and which, struck by the rays of the rising sun, and 
 emitting a kind of divine splendour, was inspiring the 
 spectators with veneration, accompanied with awe ; and 
 presently, after baneful flatterers raising acclamations, 
 each from a different quarter, were hailing him as a 
 god, begging him that he would be favourably propitious ; 
 for that heretofore having revered him as a man, they 
 now perceive and acknowledge that there is in him 
 something more excellent than mortal nature; this 
 impious adulation he did not correct or repel. There 
 ensued torturing pains in the belly, which were violent 
 from the very first. Having therefore turned his eyes 
 towards his friends, " Behold !" said he, '' I, the god as 
 you called me, am commanded to leave life, the fatal 
 necessity of death confuting your lie ; and I, whom you 
 hailed as immortal, am hurried away by a mortal stroke." 
 Then, worn out by the torture, which did not at all abate 
 for five days continuously, he ended life.' ^ He had been 
 struck by the angel of the Lord. Was it the same angel 
 that had released from prison the victim of his cruelty, the 
 apostle whom he had imprisoned to please his flatterers ? 
 III. Hezekiah's Disease. — But little can be said of the 
 nature and cure of the disease with which King Hezekiah 
 ' was afflicted. In all three references to his case he is 
 said to have been sick unto death.^ And it is therefore 
 clear from such repeated statements, as well as from his 
 own words in his song of praise on recovering his health, 
 that his life had been in danger, and that it was no 
 trifling ailment from which he had sufl*ered. But the 
 only distinct statement as to its nature is that given us 
 
 ^ Ben gel's Gnomon., Eng. Trans., vol. ii. p. 6i6. 
 
 ^ 2 Kings XX. I ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 24; Isaiah xxxviii. I. 
 
THE DISEASES OF HEZEKIAH AND JEROBOAM. 105 
 
 by the prophet Isaiah, who said, ' Let them take a lump 
 of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil^ and he shall 
 recover.'^ When the prophet first came to him he 
 addressed him in words clearly indicating the gravity of 
 the disease. 'Thus saith the Lord, Set thine house 
 in order : for thou shalt die, and not live.' We cannot 
 therefore think that it was an ordinary simple boil with 
 which the king was affected. Nor have we any ground 
 for supposing, as some have suggested, that the disease 
 was bubo-plague, which does not occur as an isolated 
 case, and we have no evidence to lead us to think 
 that any epidemic of such a disease prevailed. But it 
 might have been, and probably was, a carbuncle^ which is ") 
 often a most severe and painful thing, endangering and 
 often terminating the life of the sufferer. For this a 
 poultice of figs would be an appropriate local remedy, as 
 in the present day are cataplasms of various kinds. But 
 doubtless the recovery of the king was through Divine \ 
 interposition, by which the danger to life was averted, and / 
 of which Isaiah's prescription was but a symbol. The' 
 sign that was given to the king, by the going back of the 
 shadow ' on the sundial of Ahaz,' has hitherto not been 
 found capable of interpretation except as a miracle. The 
 answer to his prayer, accompanied by the promise that\ 
 on the third ddiy he should go up to the house of the/ 
 Lord, is sufficient evidence that the cure of a disease by 
 which he had been brought to death's door was not 
 brought about by natural means.^ 
 
 IV. Jeroboams Disease, — This, generally viewed as 
 paralysis, may possibly have arisen from what is 
 called * embolism,' i.e. the blocking of an artery by 
 
 * Isaiah xxxviii. 21. 
 
 ^ See further on this subject Notes at the end of the volume. 
 
106 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 a clot occurring suddenly and thus occasioning para- 
 lysis. 'And it came to pass, when King Jeroboam 
 heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried 
 against the altar in Bethel, that he put forth his 
 hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And 
 his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so 
 that he could not pull it in again to him. The altar 
 also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, 
 according to the sign which the man of God had given 
 by the word of the Lord. And the king answered and 
 said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the 
 Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be 
 restored me again. And the man of God besought the 
 Lord, and the king's hand was restored him again, and 
 became as it was before.'^ The king's manifest mental 
 excitement and terror at the time would lend support to 
 this view. It is, however, said not only that he could not 
 ' pull in again ' his arm, but also that it was ' dried up.' 
 This is unlike anything that immediately ensues on 
 simple embolism, but might after a while result from 
 muscular wasting following on embolism. 
 
 V. Disease of the Shunammite Woman s Son, — 'And 
 when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went 
 out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his 
 father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad. Carry 
 him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and 
 brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, 
 and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed 
 of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went 
 out.'^ This case has usually been considered as one of 
 , sunstroke or insolation, and this is probably the correct 
 Vview. But if the child's exclamation, ' My head, my 
 
 * I Kings xiii. 4-6. ^ 2 Kings iv. 18-37. 
 
THE DISEASE OF THE SHUNAMMITE S SON. 107 
 
 head,' is to be understood as intimating sudden severe 
 pain of the head, it is possible that it may have been , 
 an instance of sudden meningitis (inflammation of the ' 
 membranes of the brain) supervening in a delicate 
 child. There are several varieties of sun-stroke, all of 
 them endangering life, though many cases recover. In 
 the severer form, or sun-stroke proper, the brain and 
 nerve-centres are overwhelmed, the respiration and cir- 
 culation are arrested, and death may ensue rapidly, j 
 The patient becomes unconscious, the pulse fails, and , 
 the skin is cold. Such cases, if not immediately fatal, / 
 often prove so in the course of a few hours. If eventually 
 they recover, it is after a period of reaction accompanied 
 by symptoms of severe injury to the nervous system. 
 That death had actually occurred in this instance there 
 can be no reasonable doubt. A period of ten or twelve ^1 
 hours at least must have elapsed before the arrival of the 
 prophet. And it was not till after having kept the child 
 on her knee till noon, and then seeing that he was dead, 
 that the mother hastened to fetch Elisha. During her « 
 absence the child was laid on the bed of the prophet, \ 
 and the door shut upon him ; no remedies therefore were / 
 used, nor any attention given to the child. Gehazi, who 
 arrived first at the house, on laying the prophet^s staff 
 on the face of the child, found there was ' neither voice 
 nor hearing.' 'And when Elisha was come into the 
 house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed.' 
 The body was then cold, and it was not till after Ehsha s 
 prayer and stretching himself on the child, that *the 
 flesh of the child waxed warm,' and that subsequently 
 he opened his eyes, after sneezing seven times. There 
 are here no natural means, the use of which could ex- 
 plain the recovery. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OLD AGE. 
 
 Many are the descriptions of old age that have been 
 given us by poets, philosophers, and physicians; but 
 none that excel in poetic beauty or graphic truthful- 
 ness that with which Solomon concludes the Book of 
 Ecclesiastes. Of this we give the Authorised Version, 
 introducing alterations of any importance adopted by the 
 Revised Version. 
 ' Remember now (also) thy Creator in the days of thy 
 
 youth. 
 While the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, 
 When thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them ; 
 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be 
 
 not darkened. 
 Nor the clouds return after the rain : 
 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, 
 And the strong men shall bow themselves. 
 And the grinders cease because they are few. 
 And those that look out of the windows be darkened, 
 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the 
 
 sound of the grinding is low. 
 And he (one) shall rise up at the voice of the bird, 
 And all the daughters of music shall be brought low ; 
 And when (yea) they shall be afraid of that which is high, 
 And fears (terrors) shall be in the way, 
 
OLD AGE. 109 
 
 And the almond tree shall flourish (blossom), and the 
 
 grasshopper shall be a burden, 
 And desire (the caper-berry) shall fail : because man 
 
 goeth to his long home, 
 And the mourners go about the streets : 
 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be 
 
 broken, 
 Or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel 
 
 broken at the cistern. 
 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was : 
 And the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.' 
 
 Whatever difficulty there may be in interpreting the 
 allegorical meaning of some of the poetic figures em- 
 ployed in this vivid picture of advanced age, one cannot 
 but be struck with the accurate delineation of the leading 
 features and the truthfulness of the whole. The law of 
 mortality is distinctly recognised, that man, like every 
 other organised being, has a period assigned to him for 
 his existence. He may escape the various dangers and 
 diseases by which that period is often cut short; but 
 sooner or later the very forces and materials by 
 which his life is sustained and by which his frame has 
 been developed, the slow but inevitable operation of 
 natural laws, end in the destruction of his material 
 organisation. His dust ' returns to the earth as it was.' 
 Not so, however, that which never was dust ; the spirit, 
 as the Preacher knew, and does not fail to tell us, 
 * returns unto God who gave it,' spirit to Spirit ! 
 
 The principle which we call life, with which all organ- 
 ised beings are endowed, and by which they are dis- 
 tinguished, enables them to impart the same principle 
 to materials derived from without, even, in the case of 
 plants, from the inorganic world, and incorporate them 
 
no THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 with the original germ, and so build up and develop the 
 future organism. The phenomena and changes attending 
 this process occasion continual waste and change of 
 material, and require corresponding supply. So long as 
 the due relation between waste and supply is maintained, 
 nutrition and the various functions of the body are 
 maintained. But a time comes when waste exceeds 
 supply, and when the various elements going to con- 
 stitute the different fluids, tissues and organs no longer 
 hold their due proportion; degradation and disorgani- 
 sation ensue. The principle of life itself becomes en- 
 feebled, and its power of imparting life to new material 
 ceases. The animal and the plant alike cease to live — 
 they die. 
 
 What is this principle, force or agent, which we call 
 life, and which plays so grand and marvellous a part in 
 the universe? To this question, science, as yet, has 
 returned no response. Will it ever.'^ 
 
 But mysterious as is the power, or agent, that imparts 
 life to organic beings and transmits it from generation 
 to generation, scarcely less mysterious is the gradual 
 diminution and ultimate failure of this power to perpetuate 
 the edifice which has been evolved from an almost imper- 
 ceptible molecule, atom by atom, step by step, till it 
 culminates in the full-grown man^ that ' wondrous piece 
 of work,' which, however, 
 
 'does not grow alone 
 In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes, 
 The inward service of the mind and soul 
 Grows wide withal.* 
 
 Involution succeeds to evolution, and ^ the paragon of 
 animals, the beauty of the world,' proves to be but 
 a ' body of humiliation,' a dissolving earthly tabernacle 
 
OLD AGE. Ill 
 
 for an inhabitant whose home * is eternal in the heavens.' 
 As age advances man perceives that changes are taking 
 place in his bodily frame, rendering more and more difficult 
 the performance of his various functions and diminishing 
 his needed strength. It may be long ere any of the 
 more ordinary signs of disease are manifested, but at 
 last, even in the absence of such signs, ' Senectus ipsa 
 est morbus.'^ Henceforth each day, each hour, is 
 marked by continuous incessant steps in the process 
 of destruction by which the individual lapses into the 
 universal. 
 
 The unity of our organisation is as remarkable as its 
 complexity. Not only is there a close interdependence 
 between the various organs and functions of our organic 
 life, but also a mutual relation between these and our 
 intelligence, and our life of relation to others and the 
 outer world. In the absence of any of the ordinary 
 causes of disease, it will depend on a variety of circum- 
 stances in what organ or function the first symptoms of 
 decay manifest themselves. 
 
 Not infrequently the first indications of impairment of 
 vitality are such as are connected with the mind and 
 nervous system, with which the Preacher begins his 
 description. The brain and nerves undergo important 
 changes in their physical constitution, the due supply of 
 healthy blood requisite for the maintenance of mental 
 and nervous functions begins to fail, the containing vessels 
 become rigid, congestion and rupture ensue, or the brain 
 wastes, softens, or becomes hard. But ere many of these 
 changes are manifested, weariness of mind and somnolency 
 betoken enfeebled mental power, and then ' The evil days 
 come and the years draw nigh,' when a man has no 
 
 * Terence, PhormiOy Act iv. Sc. i. 
 
IIIZ THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 pleasure in them. The scenes and occupations of this 
 life cease to charm. Even for 'Age that melts in 
 unperceived decay,' if there are no pains, earthly pleasures 
 are few and fleeting. Memory fails to recall even past 
 joys, ' when the children were about us.' The nerves 
 cease to vibrate in response to new impressions, and even 
 care and anxieties no longer exercise their corroding 
 influence. 
 
 The figurative terms in verse 2 have been differently 
 interpreted. Impaired sight being referred to subse- 
 quently, it has been held that general mental obtuseness, 
 impairment of the intellectual faculties and perceptive 
 powers, are intended to be indicated by the darkening 
 of the heavenly bodies. Even mental aberration, so 
 frequent in very advanced age, it has been thought, is 
 here signified. This appears to have been Mead's view, 
 who says, ' Wisdom and understanding are frequently 
 called light in the sacred Scriptures, and privation of 
 reason darkness and blindness. Hence God is styled 
 the Father of lights. Thus the virtues of the mind 
 decaying may be compared to the luminaries of the 
 world overcast.' Certainly this image of the darkening 
 of the sun and moon and stars may be supposed to 
 denote the gloom and sadness too often attending old 
 age, whilst the return of the clouds after rain may 
 very well typify the recurring troubles of the aged. 
 If such views of verses i and % be accepted, they would 
 be confined to the description of the mental charac- 
 teristics of old age, those of the body being taken up 'm 
 the following verses. 
 
 ' The day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, 
 and the strong men shall bow themselves,' indicates the 
 time when the nutritive powers are no longer equal to the 
 
OLD AGE. 113 
 
 supply of material necessary to replace the waste that 
 is constantly going on. Consequently the muscles 
 shrivel and perish. The instruments of bodily strength 
 and activity are unequal to anything beyond the 
 moderate and regulated movements of common daily 
 life. Muscular vigour required for defence no longer 
 exists, and at length what is needed for sustaining the 
 body erect fails. ' The strong men bow themselves,' and 
 the gait becomes uncertain and tottering ; the keepers, 
 or protectors, of the tenement tremble, in their feeble 
 efforts to ward off danger. The solid framework of the 
 house, the bones, become fragile, so as to break on any 
 sudden or extra bodily effort. The character of the 
 locomotion is altogether changed — ' the child runs, 
 the young man jumps, the adult marches, but the old 
 man drags himself along.' The bolt shot from the bow 
 bent by the young man's vigorous arm carries death to 
 the enemy, but proves ' telum imbelle sine ictu,' when 
 sent from the old man's hand. 
 
 ' The grinders cease because they are few.' It is not 
 necessary that we should confine the term grinders in 
 this passage to the double or grinding teeth, though it 
 is by these chiefly that the food is masticated and 
 undergoes the first process in preparation for the other 
 organs of digestion. There are several ways by which 
 the number of the teeth is diminished in old age. They 
 may decay and fall away piecemeal, or they may drop 
 out from changes going on in the jaw and gums. As 
 they are gradually lost, or become useless for their of^ce, 
 the sound of the grinding necessarily becomes low, when 
 performed by the gums alone. The shutting of the street 
 door, in association with the cessation of the sound of the 
 mill, seems to indicate that the mouth is typified by 
 
 H 
 
114 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 the street door, for the opening and shutting of which 
 there is less occasion when little food is taken, and when 
 the sense of taste is blunted or lost. That failure of 
 sight is meant by the darkening of ' those that look out 
 of the windows,' we can have no doubt. Changes in the 
 physical conformation of the eye, altering its character 
 as an optical instrument, are among the very earliest 
 indications of advancing life, requiring the artificial aid 
 of glasses. But more serious effects ensue when the 
 crystalline lens becomes opaque and gives rise to cataract. 
 Then the house indeed becomes dark. Nor is this the 
 only form of blindness met with in the aged. The function 
 of the optic nerve itself may be lost, so that it no longer 
 is influenced by light {amaurosis), 
 
 ' All the daughters of music are brought low,' when 
 the auditory nerve no longer responds to aerial vibrations. 
 And this is the case when that chain of delicate and 
 beautiful apparatus imbedded in the bony cavity of the 
 internal ear is rendered immobile and unfitted for its 
 office by ossification or other changes. But while entire 
 loss of hearing is comparatively rare, merely as the result 
 of senile change, impaired hearing is one of the commonest 
 indications of advanced life, and with this is often asso- 
 ciated a morbid irritation of the auditory nerve, giving 
 rise to false sounds and leading the person to imagine 
 that he hears noises, or persons speaking, startling or 
 waking him up when no sounds have been heard. This 
 singing in the ears (tinnitus aurium) may perhaps be 
 what is implied by '' rising up at the voice of the bird,' 
 though more probably this depicts the light and imperfect 
 sleep of the aged. Old Barzillai says to David, ' Can I 
 hear any more the voice of singing men and singing 
 women ? ' 
 
OLD AGE. 115 
 
 ^ They shall be afraid of that which is high, and terrors 
 shall be in the way.' As fearlessness characterises the 
 youth, and courage the strong man, so does timidity the 
 aged. Mental vigour is often maintained when bodily 
 strength is lost through age ; but the brain, as the organ 
 through which the mind acts, no longer being duly 
 nourished, at length fails to answer the behests of the 
 will. The mysterious union of the corporeal with the 
 mental then is made manifest, that union which man 
 cannot comprehend, but which nevertheless, as Augustine 
 says, constitutes him man.^ 
 
 The spirit may still be willing, but the flesh weak. 
 There are no longer the insulated unbroken wires to 
 transmit the electric current. We speak of imagination, 
 invention, memory, and other intellectual faculties failing, 
 when, for aught that we know, it is only the material 
 instruments for their manifestation that have become 
 unavailing. In certain forms of disease we know that 
 this is the case. There are instances of cerebral disease 
 attended by what is termed aphasia (loss of speech), not 
 from any defect of power in the organs and muscles em- 
 ployed in articulation, nor from any mental incapacity to 
 take in or respond to ideas. The intellect may be unim- 
 paired, but the mandates of the will are interrupted in their 
 passage to the organs that should and could give expres- 
 sion to them, had they received the mandates. Even in 
 health and in every period of life we have evidence of the 
 mysterious laws that regulate the interdependence of the 
 physical and the psychical, though it is in extreme old 
 age that we have the saddest illustrations. 
 
 ' The almond tree shall blossom (or flourish), and the 
 
 ^ * Modus quo corporibus adhserent spiritus, . . . omnino mirus est, nee com- 
 prehendi ab homine potest; et hoc ipse homo est^ De Civit. Dci^ xxL ic 
 
 H % 
 
Il6 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 grasshopper shall be a burden.' There is great difficulty 
 in interpreting the meaning of these words. Mead thinks 
 that as all the other senses have been mentioned, it is 
 not likely that the sense of smell would be omitted, and 
 endeavours to find here inability to derive pleasure from 
 agreeable odours of plants and flowers. The common 
 interpretation, which supposes that the almond blossom 
 represents the grey hairs of the aged, cannot, I think, be 
 supported. For, in the first place, the almond blossom 
 is not white, but pink, and grey hair is by no means 
 confined to old age, nor in the next place can either grey 
 hair or baldness be said to indicate blossoming or 
 flourishing or ripening of age. If the words would be 
 more correctly rendered,^ ' the almond occasions loathing,' 
 i. e. ' this delicate fruit gives no pleasure to the old man, 
 whilst the locust, which every one else can eat, is a burden 
 or disgust to him/ the passage may be supposed to 
 refer both to the sense of smell and taste. The locust and 
 the grasshopper are both Gryllidce, and the former, it is 
 well known, is eaten ia the East both in the fresh and 
 dry state. 
 
 ' And desire (the caper-berry) shall fail, because man 
 goeth to his long home.' If the word which the A.V. 
 translates * desire' is correctly rendered by the LXX 
 KOLTTTTapis, and by the R. V. caper-berry, we can only 
 assume that this berry, so frequently used as a condiment 
 and stimulant, is to be taken as the representative of the 
 various agents had recourse to in order to rouse the 
 failing appetite, or desire, for all forms of sensual enjoy- 
 ment, because man is going to his long home.^ 
 
 * Annotated Par. Bible (R. T. S.) in loco. 
 
 ^ Capers were held by the Arabians to be aphrodisiacal, and are, I believe, 
 so considered by the Jews in the present day. Vide Paulus ^gineta, Adams, 
 Syd. Soc. Trans., vol. iii. p. 156, and references to Rhases and Avicenna. 
 
OLD AGE. 117 
 
 The loosening of the silver cord may with tolerable 
 certainty be taken as descriptive of the impaired function 
 of the spinal cord and its accessories, which is the 
 essential cause of many of the infirmities of the aged. 
 
 The remaining figures Mead characterises as true 
 enigmas requiring an CEdipus to solve them^ and his 
 own attempts are certainly not successful. It is 
 true that the circulation of the blood was unknown in 
 Solomon's time, but the heart was known to be a re- 
 ceptacle or fountain of blood, and that in some way or 
 other it was connected with machinery for distribution 
 of its contents. The broken pitcher and wheel are, at 
 all events, fit emblems, in the present day, to describe 
 the heart's failure and the feeble and deranged circulatory 
 powers which are so often the immediate precursors of 
 the final stopping of the wheel of life. The cranium, as 
 containing so important an organ as the brain, may fitly 
 be termed 'the golden bowl,' and the more important 
 paralytic affections of the aged we know are associated 
 with disease of the cerebral vessels and disorganisation 
 of the brain substance. 
 
 The Psalmist tells us that ' the days of our years are 
 threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength 
 they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and 
 sorrow.' ^ 
 
 It is a question that has been discussed, whether 
 in the present day of advanced science and civilization 
 and improved hygienic rules, the normal duration of 
 human life has, or has not, been prolonged beyond 
 the limits laid down by the Psalmist. But there can be 
 
 In Syria this berry is of a much more acrid and stimulant character than as 
 cultivated in this country. 
 ^ Psalm xc. 10. 
 
Il8 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 no question that it is incumbent on the aged to recognise 
 the necessity for observing those laws and precepts 
 which are established by both science and experience. 
 ' Peu de gens savent etre vieux ' was a saying of La 
 Rochefoucauld. No doubt the lesson is one often 
 difficult to learn, and both science and religion impress 
 on us the need we have to pray, *So teach us to 
 number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto 
 wisdom.' This wisdom in regard to the past and the 
 present, as well as to the future, it behoves the aged to 
 acquire. For them the injunction ' Know thyself implies, 
 *I have been young, and now am old,' and not less 
 certainly that even the present hour is not for them 
 what once it was. * Jam non tua.^ 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 
 
 The death of Christ on the cross being the central 
 fact of the Christian religion, with which all other facts 
 and all its doctrines are in essential vital relation, it will 
 be admitted that every fact and every consideration that 
 tends to confirm and elucidate that momentous event 
 must be of supreme interest and importance. It is, 
 therefore, not a little surprising that, until the appear- 
 ance of Dr. Stroud's work,^ the result of prolonged 
 labour and learned research, no adequate attempt should 
 have been made to demonstrate the nature of the im- 
 mediate, essential, physical cause of the death of the 
 Saviour. No doubt the more accurate and advanced 
 physiological science of recent times has given superior 
 advantages for the investigation of a subject which was 
 long held to be surrounded by difficulties and obscurity. 
 That the conclusions to which Dr. Stroud has arrived 
 are valid and incontrovertible will, we think, be admitted 
 by all who are competent to judge both of the facts that 
 he adduces and the soundness of the inductive reasoning 
 by which he arrives at his conclusions. 
 
 As, however, there is reason to think that the light 
 which has now been shed on this sacred subject is not so 
 generally known as is desirable, we have deemed it not 
 
 1 Treatise on the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ and its relations 
 to the Principles and Practice of Christianity , by W. Stroud, M.D., London, 
 1847. 
 
120 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 inappropriate to present our readers, as a supplement to 
 the subjects of which we have already treated, with a 
 short account of the physical cause of our Lord's death, 
 as demonstrated mainly through the researches of Dr. 
 Stroud. 
 
 That the question is not one of mere curious interest, 
 but has important bearings both on Christian evidences 
 and doctrine, will be manifest on the slightest reflection. 
 We, however, restrict ourselves, as far as may be, to 
 what, without irreverence, may be called the scientific 
 or medical aspect of the subject, and desire in limine 
 to acknowledge, with Dr. Stroud, in the fullest manner, 
 the union of the Divine and human nature in Christ, and 
 that it is only with what relates to His perfect human 
 nature, which alone could be subject to suffering and 
 death, that we have here to do. The accounts given us by 
 the four Evangelists, although not the only, are the chief, 
 sources of information afforded to us by the Scriptures, 
 and the combined evidence derived from both the Old 
 and the New Testament shows that the whole transaction 
 was extraordinary and unique. 
 
 ' Many centuries before the event, the voice of pro- 
 phecy had proclaimed that the Saviour of mankind 
 would suffer a death at once violent and voluntary, as 
 a criminal, and as a victim, universally approved by God 
 and man, yet loaded with the malediction of both. His 
 death was to be directed by Jewish priests without power, 
 and executed by Gentile rulers without authority, and He 
 was to be condemned on a charge in which, notwith- 
 standing their religious hostility, both parties could unite 
 in attesting and rejecting His claims as the Messiah. 
 He was to suffer the death of the cross, which commonly 
 happened by slow exhaustion, and in Judea was usually 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. I!21 
 
 hastened by breaking the legs, yet none of His bones were 
 to be broken. His heart was at the same time to be 
 pierced, and He was to die suddenly, as a sin-offering by 
 the effusion of His life's blood, the appointed means of 
 atonement, although the former was not essential to the 
 punishment of crucifixion, and the latter was the very 
 reverse of its usual effect. The actual accomplishment 
 of all these intricate and apparently discordant con- 
 ditions is formally asserted in various parts of the New 
 Testament not as a casual coincidence, but as indis- 
 pensably necessary to the fulfilment of prophecy, the 
 veracity of which would have been forfeited had any one 
 of them failed to take place.' ^ 
 
 The principal causes to which the death of Christ was 
 attributed by the older commentators and others were 
 (i) the ordinary sufferings attendant on crucifixion ; (2) 
 an unusual degree of bodily weakness ; (3) the wound 
 inflicted by the soldier's spear ; (4) supernatural inter- 
 position. 
 
 I. That the death of Christ should very generally 
 have been supposed, by those who derived their know- 
 ledge of crucifixion as a punishment from the evangelical 
 records alone, to have resulted from the ordinary and 
 necessary sufferings attending that mode of execution is 
 not surprising. But to obtain correct notions on this 
 subject we must have recourse to other historical sources 
 of information. These, indeed, clearly show that cruci- 
 fixion was a peculiarly painful, lingering, and ignominious 
 form of punishment, but that the sufferings, though 
 great, have, either through ignorance or design, been 
 much exaggerated. Numerous instances may be adduced 
 from both ancient and modern authors in proof of its 
 
 ^ Stroud, p. 29. 
 
12^3 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 lingering nature, especially from the Roman Martyrology. 
 From Origen and others of the early Fathers it would 
 appear that two days was the usual period during which 
 crucified persons survived, when death was not hastened 
 by additional means. This is the period during which St. 
 Andrew the apostle is reported to have lived on the cross, 
 and which time he is said to have spent in preaching to 
 the people. Victor, Bishop of Amiternum, who was cru- 
 cified with his head downwards, a position which must 
 have been unfavourable to life, survived the same period.^ 
 
 In other recorded instances the sufferers have survived 
 three days, and some even longer, though subjected to 
 additional torture. From the examination of numerous 
 recorded cases it appears that, in the absence of any 
 extra cruelty beyond simple crucifixion, death seldom 
 occurred within two days. 
 
 Jesus, however, died suddenly after enduring the suffer- 
 ing of the cross only six hours, whilst the malefactors 
 crucified along with Him lived till their legs were broken. 
 Pilate therefore, knowing this, 'marvelled if He were 
 already dead,' and enquired of the centurion * whether 
 He had been any while dead,' when Joseph of Arimathea 
 came and craved the body of Jesus. The application 
 which the Jews made to Pilate, ' that their legs might 
 be broken,' lest the bodies should remain on the cross 
 during the Sabbath, was evidently prompted by the belief 
 that otherwise death would not have ensued soon enough 
 to avoid the infringement of their law. 
 
 2. ' His last sufferings befell Him when in the flower of 
 His age, at the period of His greatest vigour and maturity. 
 
 * Jacobus Bosius, Crux Triumphans et Gloriosa, pp. 8, 9, 43 et seq. See 
 also numerous detailed references given by Dr. Stroud from both ancient 
 and modem writers, and, among others, from Ellis in his History of 
 Madagascar. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 1 23 
 
 Those in the garden of Gethsemane, although intense, 
 were of short duration, and He was supernaturally 
 strengthened for the very purpose of enabling Him to 
 support them. Those incidental to crucifixion were not 
 more severe in His case than in that of others. His 
 deportment throughout the whole scene, whether in the 
 garden, before the tribunal of the Sanhedrim and of 
 Pilate, or at Golgotha, evinced the utmost piety, forti- 
 tude and self-possession. The circumstance of Simon 
 the Cyrenian being compelled to assist in bearing His 
 cross by no means proves that mere weakness disabled 
 Christ from bearing it alone. The contrary appears, 
 from His immediately afterwards addressing the Jewish 
 women who bewailed His fate, and bidding them weep 
 not for Him, but for themselves and their children. On 
 arriving at the fatal spot He refused the cup of medicated 
 wine usually given as a cordial to crucified persons ; and 
 after praying for His executioners, assuring the penitent 
 malefactor of eternal happiness, providing for the future 
 support of His widowed mother, and actively concurring 
 in the fulfilment of prophecy, He suddenly expired amidst 
 loud and fervent ejaculations, which alone were sufficient 
 to show that He retained all His faculties of mind and 
 body to the last moment of His life.' ^ 
 
 3. The contention of Granville Penn and others, that 
 the death of Christ resulted from the wound inflicted by 
 the soldier's spear, is mainly supported by a various 
 reading of the Vatican and some other MSS., which 
 interpose between verses 49 and 50 of Matthew's account 
 the words, ' But another taking a spear, pierced His side, 
 and there came forth water and blood.' This reading, 
 however, is not generally accepted, and is not adopted 
 
 * Stroud, p. 71. 
 
124 ' THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 either by the A. V. or the R. V.,^ though given by the 
 latter in a note. But 'though excluded by almost all 
 the ancient MS. versions and Fathers, and rejected by 
 the principal critics and editors of the Greek Testament,' 
 it was adopted by Chrysostom. In the opinion of Dr. 
 Stroud and others, * it is an unwarrantable interpolation 
 in Matthew's Gospel of words borrowed from that of 
 John, and stamped with internal marks of inconsistency 
 and falsehood.' But even Chrysostom, maintaining as 
 he did that Christ laid down His life by His own power, 
 represents the spear-wound as having been inflicted on 
 the body after death, of which proof will be adduced when 
 we come to speak of the true physical cause of the death. 
 
 How inconsistent are the words as interpolated in 
 Matthew's account both with what precedes and what 
 follows, a careful reader will see, and has been fully shown 
 by Dr. Stroud, whereas their position in the narrative of 
 John, who specially emphasises the fact that he was an 
 eye-witness of the events, is perfectly consistent with his 
 record. An additional reason against the spear-wound 
 having been inflicted during life is aflbrded by the fact 
 that the soldiers were not at liberty to interfere with the 
 execution at their pleasure. It was only when they 
 believed that Christ was already dead, and that there 
 was no necessity for them to carry out the command to 
 break the legs, that the spear was employed to make 
 certain the fact of death having already taken place. 
 
 4. That none of the views to which we have alluded 
 have been considered tenable is shown by the prevalence, 
 from the earliest times to the present day, of the opinion 
 that it is to supernatural agency that the death of Christ 
 is to be attributed. TertuUian, Origen, and many others 
 
 ^ Nor by Segond in the New French Version. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 1 25 
 
 of the ancient Christian writers, and of the most eminent 
 among modern commentators, have maintained that 
 Christ by a voluntary supernatural power ' laid down His 
 life,' ' dismissed His spirit,' ' resigned His spirit,' ' let go 
 His soul and delivered it up into the hands of God,' ' that 
 His life was not forcibly extorted from Him but freely 
 resigned.' These and similar expressions have been 
 employed by those who believe that it was not by the 
 intervention of any physical cause that the human life of 
 Christ was extinguished. That it was not through force 
 of necessity, but that He died freely and voluntarily when 
 His nature was in full strength, must, it is thought, have 
 been the conviction of the centurion when he exclaimed, 
 ' Truly this was the Son of God.' We need not say how 
 many passages of Scripture may be cited which seem to 
 support such views. Our Lord Himself says, ^ No man 
 taketh My life from Me, but I lay it down of Myself.' 
 
 That this long-prevalent view, which assigns the Lord's 
 death to supernatural agency, is inconsistent with His 
 own language when speaking to His disciples, and with 
 the teaching of Scripture in many places both of the Old 
 and New Testament, is manifest. But it is not within 
 our scope to enter on the discussion of the theological 
 questions which are involved in any attempt to har- 
 monise the various all-important Scriptural statements 
 relating to the death of Him who offered Himself a 
 sacrifice for the sins of the world, and who by ' wicked 
 hands was crucified and slain.' 
 
 If none of the causes to which we have referred can be 
 deemed to afford an adequate explanation of the imme- 
 diate cause of our Lord's death, we naturally ask what 
 other cause was there that can be both held to be 
 sufficient and consistent with the circumstances of the 
 
126 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 case ? To this Dr. Stroud has replied, Agony of mind, 
 producing rupture of the heart. The outline of the argu- 
 ment by which he has been led to this conclusion we 
 give in his own words : 
 
 ' In the garden of Gethsemane Christ endured mental 
 agony so intense that, had it not been limited by Divine 
 interposition, it would probably have destroyed His 
 life without the aid of any other sufferings ; but having 
 been thus mitigated, its effects were confined to violent 
 palpitation of the heart, accompanied with bloody sweat. 
 On the cross this agony was renewed, in conjunction 
 with the ordinary sufferings incidental to that mode of 
 punishment; and having at this time been allowed to 
 proceed to its utmost extremity without restraint, occa- 
 sioned sudden death by rupture of the heart, intimated 
 by a discharge of blood and water from His side, when 
 it was afterwards pierced with a spear.' ^ 
 
 The heart, which is the central and main power by 
 which the circulation of the blood is effected, is a 
 muscular organ consisting of four distinct chambers, 
 through which the blood enters from all regions of the 
 system and passes out to be distributed by the arteries 
 throughout the body to the most remote parts. But 
 though it is made up of muscular fibres it is not, like 
 other muscles, under the control of the will. It is what 
 is termed an * involuntary muscle'; its requisite, ordained, 
 regular action going on incessantly, so long as life lasts, 
 uncontrolled by the will. Fixed only at its base, on 
 which the rest of the organ moves, the free, uncontrolled 
 action of its different compartments is secured by its 
 being enclosed in an envelope, or sac, termed the ' peri- 
 cardium/ the interior of which is lubricated by a thin 
 
 1 Stroud. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST, llj 
 
 clear secretion to obviate friction. But whilst its constant 
 rhythmical action is maintained independent of the will, 
 it manifests, more than any other organ of our body, that 
 intimate connexion which exists between body and mind. 
 Of this every one is more or less conscious. Hence the 
 various current phrases employed to denote the effects 
 of the passions and varying mental states on the heart's 
 action, such as ' My heart jumps for joy,' ' My heart feels 
 light ; ' ' it is oppressed, it is heavy, it is ready to break ; ' 
 all indicating conscious disturbance of the heart induced 
 by mental causes. Every physician knows that such 
 phrases are not merely metaphorical, but that they really 
 express actual derangements of the heart's action and 
 condition, and often such as indicate danger to life. A 
 fit of passion, sudden grief or joy, fear or terror, intense 
 mental anxiety or strain, especially that which attends 
 conflicting emotions, may through the medium of the 
 heart so derange all the vital functions as to imperil and 
 destroy life. The symptoms attending such disturbance 
 vary with the character of the mental exciting causes, 
 sometimes indicating dangerous over-excitement and 
 action, and at others even more dangerous depression 
 and failure of action. As the result of exciting passions 
 we have forcible beating of the heart and rapid pulse, 
 glowing features, glistening eye, quick breathing, giddi- 
 ness, and headache. Depressing passions are attended 
 by a feeble, scarcely discernible pulse, faint, tremulous 
 action of the heart, pale features, profuse sweating, and 
 gasping breath, ending in a swoon and final stoppage of 
 the heart's action. 
 
 In all these dangerous forms of cardiac derangement 
 there may be no actual structural disease of the heart, 
 though every physician knows how difiicult it often is 
 
128 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 to persuade a patient of this, who happens to be the 
 frequent subject of palpitation and irregular action and 
 sense of pain or discomfort about the heart, from various 
 and especially moral causes. If, however, there be actual 
 disease of the organ, any source of disturbed action be- 
 comes doubly dangerous, and many cases of sudden 
 death occur from comparatively trivial exciting causes 
 where the actual cardiac disease is of a very limited 
 and apparently slight character. But the danger of 
 actual rupture of the organ is greatest where, from im- 
 paired nutrition, its muscular power is seriously weakened ; 
 and of all causes inducing such disease none are more 
 powerful than prolonged distressing and depressing 
 mental states. The patient may often then be truly 
 said to ' die of a broken heart.' 
 
 Assuming that the heart is in all respects sound and 
 vigorous, the danger attending prolonged intense mental 
 agony is yet great, for not only may rupture of the heart 
 even then be the result, though effected in a somewhat 
 different way, but the tension exerted on the whole cir- 
 culating system may be such as to rupture the smaller 
 vessels of the lungs or brain, or those supplying the sur- 
 face of the body, and thus occasion haemorrhage. There 
 can be no doubt that death has often occurred in one 
 or other of these ways, though it may be admitted 
 that in the majority of cases there has been evidence of 
 pre-existing cardiac disease. 
 
 A careful study of what is recorded as having tran- 
 spired in the garden of Gethsemane is of the utmost 
 importance in connexion with our subject, and it should 
 be remembered that this account is given by Luke the 
 physician. In his Gospel, chap. xxii. verses 41-44} we 
 read (R.V.) : ' And He was parted from them about a 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 1 29 
 
 stone's cast ; and He kneeled down and prayed, saying, 
 Father, if Thou be wilHng, remove this cup from Me : 
 nevertheless not My will, but Thine, be done. And there 
 appeared unto Him an angel from heaven, strengthening 
 Him. And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly : 
 and His sweat became as it were great drops of blood 
 falling down upon the ground.'-^ In these verses there are 
 terms employed which are strictly medical, and not used 
 elsewhere in the New Testament. The radical meaning 
 of the Greek word rendered ' agony' is struggling or 
 contention, and is described by Galen, the Greek medical 
 authority,^ as a mental conflict between anger and fear, 
 the one tending to drive the blood outwards and the 
 other inwards to the vital organs, with corresponding 
 outward pallor and coldness. Speaking generally, it 
 implies a conflict between divers and contrary mental 
 states, e. g. an impulse to resist danger and fear to 
 encounter it. Thus in our Lord's case it would be the 
 fitting expression to denote the severe mental struggle 
 'between the terror of death and the judicial anger of 
 the righteous Father.' ' Father, if Thou be willing, 
 remove this cup from Me ; nevertheless not My will, 
 but Thine, be done.' 
 
 The Greek word which both the A.V. and the R.V. 
 render ' great drops ' is OpofxPoL, which, in a general sense, 
 means a concrete mass or lump of the solid constituents 
 of a liquid, such as milk or blood. In the technical 
 sense, in which it is used by Hippocrates and other 
 medical authorities, it means a drop or mass of coagu- 
 lated blood. In medical phraseology of the present day, 
 
 ^ Kal ycvofievos (V dyojvla kfcreveffTcpov npoarjvx^TO' eyevero Be 6 Idpus 
 avTov (xjcrel Bpofx^oi aipLaros Kara^aivovTes kvi rrjv y^v^ v. 44. 
 * De Sy7nptom Caus. ii. 5, torn. vii. p. 192. 
 
 I 
 
130 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 a ' thrombus ' is a clot of blood blocking up the calibre 
 of a blood-vessel. 
 
 The adverb oxret, translated ' as it were/ would seem 
 to imply that the drops which fell to the ground were 
 not pure blood, but merely sweat (Ibpm) mixed with the 
 colouring particles of the blood, and thus only resembling 
 bloody though some authorities say that the adverbs o>s 
 and oxrel do sometimes imply reality. 
 
 Sudden and abnormally profuse sweating, as the result 
 of intense mental excitement and anxiety, is of suffi- 
 ciently common occurrence to be well known, and there 
 are numerous cases on record in which such sweating has 
 been bloody. In the Ephemerides several examples are 
 given of bloody tears, as well as sweat, occasioned by 
 extreme dread of death. Tissot reports the case of a 
 sailor who was so alarmed in a storm that, through fear 
 of death, he fell down and his face sweated blood, which, 
 during the whole continuance of the storm, returned like 
 ordinary sweat as fast as it was wiped away.^ In a case 
 cited by Schenck from a martyrology, a nun, who was 
 threatened by armed soldiers with instant death, was so 
 terrified and agitated that she discharged blood from 
 every part of her body, and died of haemorrhage in the 
 sight of her assailants.^ It would be easy from modern 
 medical records to adduce evidence of haemorrhage 
 similarly induced, from small vessels supplying internal 
 organs, such as the brain, occasioning rapid death. 
 
 Now the record tells us that the Divine Sufferer, 
 ' when exceeding sorrowful even unto death,' ' sore 
 amazed and very heavy/ ' being in an agony, He prayed 
 more earnestly,' and was rescued by supernatural inter- 
 
 * Tissot's Traiti des Nerfs, &=c., pp. 279, 280. 
 
 ^ J. Schenck d, Grafenberg Observ. Med. ^'c, lib. iii. p. 458. 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 131 
 
 position from the danger by which He was then 
 threatened — ' an angel from heaven strengthening 
 Him.' 1 
 
 The sufferings in Gethsemane, overwhelming as they 
 were, and threatening immediate death, were, however, 
 wholly mental — anguish of soul. As yet the Saviour 
 had been subjected to no bodily suffering from the hand 
 of man. It was otherwise in the succeeding hours, 
 previous to and during crucifixion. Bodily suffering of 
 no ordinary kind was then superadded, though, for 
 reasons already adduced, not such as afford us a 
 satisfactory explanation of the death as it is recorded to 
 have taken place. Doubtless the mental agony lasted, 
 even if in a mitigated degree, throughout the proceedings 
 that ended in His being condemned to die ; but when on 
 the cross it reached its utmost intensity, and drew forth the 
 bitter exclamation, ' My God ! my God ! why hast Thou 
 forsaken Me?' The cup then again presented was drunk 
 to the very dregs. No supernatural relief then inter- 
 posing, the violence of the strain on the heart was such 
 as to occasion the rupture of its walls, with sudden sup- 
 pression of all circulation, and so preventing such haemor- 
 rhagic signs as occurred in the garden. The immediate 
 consequence of rupture of the heart would be the effusion 
 of blood into the pericardium. The amount poured out 
 would depend on the extent and character of the ruptured 
 opening. In similar cases the amount effused has been at 
 once so great as, by its pressure around the whole organ, 
 combined with the shock, to produce instant death. In 
 other instances the quantity first effused has been small, 
 
 ^ The terms used by the Evangelists in their descriptions, especially by 
 Mark, are, in the opinion of competent judges, the strongest which the Greek 
 language could supply. 
 
 I 2 
 
I3!2 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 but repeated at each beat, the heart continuing to act 
 for an hour or more before Hfe has been extinct. 
 
 The suddenness of Christ's death leads to the belief 
 that the rent was large, and the violence of the heart's 
 contraction being great, as the result of its previous 
 strong and healthy condition, the amount of blood 
 effused would be large. The perfect consciousness of 
 the Sufferer, as indicated by His knowledge of what yet 
 remained of prophecy to be fulfilled, and the loud voice 
 with which He cried when uttering His last words, 
 immediately preceding the bowing of His head and 
 resigning His spirit, contra-indicate gradual exhaustion 
 of mind or body, whether from haemorrhage or any 
 other cause. 
 
 In order to understand what immediately followed on 
 the wound by the soldier's spear, it is necessary to 
 explain what is meant by coagulation of the blood, 
 although the laws by which this is governed, being 
 connected with the principle of life, are still obscure. 
 In the living and healthy state the blood is a uniform 
 fluid consisting largely of water, containing albumen and 
 fibrin, along with certain saline constituents and numerous 
 organised particles termed ' red globules,' which give to it 
 its colour and play an important part in the vital functions 
 that it fulfils. The appearance of this uniform red fluid 
 while flowing, or as first shed, is known to all ; and this 
 appearance it presents so long as it is contained within the 
 heart and blood-vessels during life. But on the failure 
 of these conditions it undergoes a remarkable change. 
 When discharged from its containing cavities and vessels, it 
 soon loses its vitality and separates into distinct portions. 
 The fibrin spontaneously concretes into a spongy mass, 
 in which the red globules are entangled, and which floats 
 
PHYSICAL CAUSE OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST. 1 33 
 
 or sinks in the fluid portion termed serum, containing the 
 water and the albumen with the other constituents. Thus 
 in a short time blood drawn from the arm into a basin 
 presents the appearance of blood and water, but the tech- 
 nical terms for which would be crass amentum and serum. 
 The time required for this coagulation and separation of 
 the constituents of the blood is very short, after it has 
 passed out of the heart or any of the containing vessels. 
 We cannot say precisely what length of time elapsed 
 between the utterance of the Saviour's last words and 
 the piercing of His side by the spear; but whilst it 
 could not have been more than two hours, calculating the 
 time before sunset, it was not sufficient for the coagulation 
 of blood that might still have been retained in the heart 
 or large vessels, but was amply sufficient had it been 
 poured into the pericardium through rupture of the walls 
 of the heart ; for we know that in such circumstances the 
 time required for coagulation would not differ materially 
 from that required when out of the body. 
 
 We conclude, therefore, with the writer whose line of 
 argument we have followed,^ ' that it may with certainty 
 be affirmed that between the agony of mind which the 
 Saviour endured in the garden of Gethsemane, and the 
 profuse sweat mixed with clotted blood which so rapidly 
 followed it, violent palpitation of the heart must neces- 
 sarily have intervened ; this being the only known condition 
 which could have been at once the effect of the former 
 occurrence, and the cause of the latter. In like manner, 
 when on the cross this agony was renewed, and by the 
 addition of bodily suffering was increased to the utmost 
 intensity, no other known condition could have formed 
 the connecting link between that mental anguish and 
 
 * Stroud, pp. 155, 156. 
 
134 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 His sudden death, preceded by loud exclamations, and 
 followed by an effusion of blood and water from His side 
 when afterwards pierced with a spear, than the aggra- 
 vation even to rupture, of the same violent action of the 
 heart, of which the previous palpitation and bloody 
 sweat were but a lower degree and a natural prelude. 
 If, whilst every other explanation hitherto offered has 
 been shown to be untenable, the cause now assigned for 
 the death of Christ, namely, rupture of the heart from 
 agony of mind, has been proved to be the result of an 
 actual power in nature, fully adequate to the effect, 
 really present without counteraction, minutely agreeing 
 with all the facts of the case, and necessarily implied by 
 them, this cause must, according to the principles of 
 inductive reasoning, be regarded as demonstrated.' 
 
 We must refer to the latter portions of Dr. Stroud's 
 able treatise those who are anxious to satisfy themselves 
 how far the view here set forth harmonises with the 
 statements of Scripture on the doctrine of the Atonement, 
 with the types and prophecies relating to the death of 
 Christ, with the narratives and symbols of the New 
 Testament, and generally with Scriptural doctrine, in 
 relation to this central fact of Christianity. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Fiery Serpents. 
 
 The punishment inflicted on the children of Israel 
 by means of the fiery serpents with which they 
 were visited, in consequence of their murmuring 
 against the Lord and Moses, scarcely comes within 
 the scope of our subject. But the curious and novel 
 explanation which Kiicl^^i] pi qj^ster,?^ has attempted to 
 give of the brief Biblical account seems deserving of 
 notice, as it is but little known. In Numbers xxi. 4 
 we read, ' And they journeyed from Mount Hor by 
 the way of the Red Sea, to compass the land of Edom ; 
 and the soul of the people was much discouraged 
 because of the way. And the people spake against God 
 and against Moses.' 'And the Lord sent fiery serpents 
 among the people, and they bit the people, and much 
 people of Israel died.' In Deut. viii. 15 the same visita- 
 tion is recorded — ' Who led thee through that great and 
 terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and 
 scorpions, and drought, where there was no water.' In 
 the prophecies of Isaiah only do we hear of 'flying fiery 
 serpents ' along with the ' viper.' ^ 
 
 The Hebrew generic term for the serpent tribe is 
 tt}TO, translated by the LXX o<^ts. There has been 
 
 ^ Manual of Parasites. Syden. Soc. Edition. Vol. i. p. 390. 
 2 Isaiah xxx. 6 and xiv. 29. 
 
136 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 much discussion as to the particular species by whose 
 bite much people died, without, however, any trust- 
 worthy decision having been arrived at. Some have 
 considered it to be the bLyj/ds, one of the Colubers, whose 
 bite is attended by burning pain and inflammatory 
 eruption and great thirst. There is no true flying 
 serpent, although some have the faculty of darting from 
 a distance at the object of their attack. But there is a 
 species of Haye or hooded serpent, which has the power 
 of distending the hood in the form of wings at the side 
 of the head. This or an allied species of serpent is met 
 with at the Cape, and called the ' Pof or Spooch Adder.' 
 /In some of the symbolical pictures of the Egyptians 
 t there are serpents represented with wings like a bird. 
 The specific term * fiery ' might very well be applied to 
 several serpents met with in the desert of Arabia, whose 
 bite is followed by burning pain, and one of these is 
 supposed to be the ^^^ of Numbers xxi, the o^et? 
 Tovs OavarovvTas or deadly serpents of the LXX, which 
 can dart from branch to branch of a tree, or fling them- 
 selves to the ground. 
 
 Now Kiichenmeister contends that the Hebrew words 
 rendered ' fiery serpents ' ought to have the article before 
 each word ol o(^ets ol a-epa^iii^ and that as seraphim is 
 derived from ^^^ it merely signifies that which burns 
 (' is qui comburit '). He therefore thinks it is clear 
 that a ' species of animal is referred to, which is dis- 
 tinguished by the inflammability of its bite, or 
 generally by the inflammation which its presence 
 occasions.' He further maintains that the mode in 
 which D'^p'lfen D'^tpnin annoyed the people is de- 
 scribed in the seventh verse : ' Therefore the people 
 came to Moses, and said, We have sinned^ for we have 
 
FIERY SERPENTS. 137 
 
 spoken against the Lord, and against thee. Pray unto the 
 Lord, that He take away the serpents from us.' The last 
 clause, he says, should be rendered ' that Jehovah may 
 allow to be taken away from upon us.' This he believes 
 is not descriptive of the attacks of snakes, which w^hen 
 they inflict wounds do it without remaining upon the 
 person ; they come to him unseen, but not upon him. 
 But it suits very well the Filar ia Medinensis, as its seat ^ 
 is immediately beneath the skin, where it gives rise to ' 
 boils and tumours upon the surface. 
 
 This parasitic worm, the Filaria Medinensis^ or\ 
 guinea-worm, was in ancient times reckoned among the 1 
 serpents, on account of its snake-like form, and was / 
 named by the Greeks bpaKovnov = dracunculus, i. e. a 
 species of snake which had something fabulous and 
 inexplicable about it, and which, though from its form it 
 might be considered a serpent, could not with equal 
 propriety, from its nature, pass as a snake. The in- 
 flammatory pain and swelling which occur with the 
 breaking out of the worm are very well expressed by 
 * seraphim.' 
 
 The dracunculus, or guinea-worm, has long been \ 
 known as endemic on the borders of the Red Sea and in j 
 the Arabian desert. The first notice of it appears to / 
 have been given by Agatharchides ^, who is quoted by 
 Plutarch^ as narrating that 'the people taken ill near 
 the Red Sea suffered from many strange and unheard-of 
 attacks; amongst others little snakes came out upon 
 them {bpaKovTta juttK/oa), which gnawed away their legs and 
 arms, and when touched again retracted themselves up 
 
 * A Greek writer on geography who lived in the second century B.C., the 
 fragments of whose works contain a great deal of information regarding 
 the Nile and the Red Sea. 
 
 ^ Sympos. viii. 9. 
 
138 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 in the muscles, and there gave rise to the most insupport- 
 able inflammations.' 
 
 This is a correct description of the attacks of a now 
 well-known parasite which is endemic in many parts of 
 the East, and sometimes assumes an epidemic character, 
 as we may suppose was the case during the time of the 
 Exodus, if we can entertain the view of Klichenmeister 
 and some others. 
 
 The following are the characters of this parasite, 
 commonly called dracunculus, or guinea-worm, but now 
 classed with the Filarice^ or threadlike worms {filum, a 
 thread). It usually measures from one to three feet in 
 length, but examples have been met with measuring six 
 feet. In breadth it is about one-tenth of an inch. In 
 the adult state it is believed to obtain entrance into the 
 body of a person through those parts which are most 
 exposed, especially the feet and legs. When introduced 
 into the system by drinking infected water, the worm 
 developes in the intestinal canal, and subsequently makes 
 its way to the surface, and this probably is the chief 
 mode by which it obtains entrance. The presence of 
 the worms is first denoted by the pain and inflammation 
 attending their attempted exit through the skin, which 
 becomes swollen and inflamed around the point at which 
 they appear, especially if by unskilful attempts to extract 
 them the worm is broken and a portion left behind. To 
 avoid this, the old method employed by the Persians is 
 still in use. By gentle and continuous traction the 
 exposed portion of the worm is wound around a small 
 stick or bone, till at successive intervals the whole is 
 wound on to the stick and so extracted. 
 
 In certain districts the ponds and stagnant pools swarm 
 with microscopic organisms, among which the guinea- 
 
FIERY SERPENTS. 139 
 
 worm often abounds. There is then certainly no im- 
 probability in the supposition that the Israelites, when 
 suffering from drought, as we know they did, would be 
 likely, from seizing on any water, however foul, to become 
 infested with the Filaria, which from its general form 
 might be spoken of as a serpent, and denominated fiery 
 from its inflammatory and painful effects. And it is 
 certainly more easy to understand how, in this way, 
 large numbers of people should be destroyed rather than 
 by serpent bites in the ordinary way in which they are 
 inflicted. Serpents exist in comparatively small numbers 
 in any locality, and are generally easily seen and guarded 
 against, and whilst their mortal effects are rapidly in- 
 duced, they are not generally attended by much pain 
 and inflammation, but rather by stupor and depression. 
 
 'The Filar ia Medmensis^ says a recent writer,^ 'is 
 met with throughout the western half of the Arabian 
 peninsula, from the most northern part of the Hedjaz 
 province to Aden, and both in the burning sandy plains 
 and mountainous districts. Of 3500 to 4000 Turkish 
 soldiers of an expeditionary force visiting for four months 
 the country of Djebel Chahare in 1877, no less than 2500 
 men were attacked, and there was an average of four 
 worms in each man, whilst some had 10, 20, 30, or more. 
 The exhausted soldiers on the march got them from 
 drinking of the stagnant pools. The length of the worms 
 was from 4 to 48 inches/ 
 
 How far Kiichenmeister's view is admissible or satis- 
 factory, we leave to the reader to determine. But 
 whatever opinion may be held as to the particular 
 creature through whose agency the people died, it 
 cannot affect the more important part of the record, 
 
 ^ Sambolsky, Du Ver de Medine, 1879. 
 
I40 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 which relates to the means by which the mortality was 
 stayed. 
 
 *And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery 
 serpent and set it upon a pole ; and it shall come to 
 pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon 
 it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and 
 put it upon a pole, and it came to pass that if a serpent 
 had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass 
 he lived.' 
 
 Whatever similitude of form there may be between 
 the Filaria and a serpent, we can scarcely doubt that the 
 brazen image erected by Moses was that of a serpent. 
 Various important considerations would lead us to con- 
 clude that the symbol employed was that of a serpent. 
 But it is sufficient to recall the precious use which our 
 Lord makes of the miracle recorded by His servant, in 
 His ever to be remembered words to Nicodemus : 
 
 ^ And as Moses lifted up the serpent (jov 6(^iv) in the 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up : 
 That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 
 but have eternal life. For God so loved the world 
 that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever 
 believeth in Him should not perish, but have ever- 
 lasting life.' 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Introduction, — Of the medical science and practice of 
 the Jews in the time of our Lord, Dr. Stapfer says : ' Tout 
 le monde s'occupait de medecine et personne n'en savait 
 le premier mot. La medecine existait en Grece depuir 
 cinq cent ans, mais elle n'en etait pas sortie. L'ignorancs 
 des Juifs en medecine et leur impuissance a s'affranchie 
 de cette ignorance venaient de ce qu'ils voyaient dans la 
 maladie la punition de peches commis soit par le patient 
 lui-meme, soit par ses parents et qu'ils I'attribuaient 
 presque toujours a I'influence d'un mauvais esprit. La 
 seule guerison possible etait alors Texpulsion du demon 
 (ou des demons, quelquefois on en avait plusieurs), et 
 toute la science medicale se reduisait a chercher le 
 meilleur mode d expulsion. Ce n'^tait pas le plus instruit 
 qui etait le plus propre a cette oeuvre de bienfaisance, 
 mais le plus religieux/ — La Palestine au temps de Jhus 
 Christ, par Edm. Stapfer ; Paris, 1885, 3rd edition, p. 243. 
 
 Leprosy, — I am indebted to my friend Dr. Greenhill 
 for the following references in ancient writings to the 
 subject of Leprosy. 
 
 'Lepra cutis asperitas squammosa lepidi similis (unde 
 et nomen sumpsit), cujus color nunc in ingredinem ver- 
 titur, nunc in alborem, nunc in ruborem.' — Isidorus Hispal. 
 Etymol. lib. iv. cap. 8. § 11. tom. i. p. 98, ed. Matr. 1778. 
 
 * Scabies, et lepra, utraque passio, asperitas cutis cum 
 pruritu et squammatione.' — Ibid. § to. 
 
 ' Elephantiacus morbus dicitur ex similitudine ele- 
 phantis,' etc. — Ibid. § 12. 
 
 Lepra symbolical of sin. — Gregor. Nazian. Orat, xl. 
 tom. i. p. 661, C, ed. Colon. 1690. 
 
 Leprosy in man, and also in house, symbolical of sin. — 
 Tertull. Oil Modesty (vol. iii. p. 115 ; Clark's ed. ; Edinb. 
 1870), cap. 20. tom. i. p. 840, ed. Oehler, Lips. 1853. 
 
142^ THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Leprosy in man, and in house, symbolical of sin, and 
 ' of Jews' synagogue/ — Origen, Selecta in Levit, torn. ix. 
 p. 167, &c.; ed. Lommatzseh, Berol. 1839. 
 
 Leprosy symbolical of sin; and when all over the 
 body and clean signifies 7^9 aXrjOeCas airXovv xpS>iia. — Clem. 
 Alex. Pcedag, lib. iii. cap. 11. p. 286, ed. Venet. 1757. (Vid. 
 Phil. Lib. de Plantat § 'xG. tom. i. p. 346, ed. Mangey.) 
 
 * Lepra doctrina est falsa.' Leprosi are heretics and 
 six kinds of leprosy correspond to different heresies. — 
 Isidorus Hispal. Myst, ExposiL Sacrmn,^ seu ' Quaest. in 
 Levit! cap. 11, tom. ii. p. lo^"], 
 
 ' Nemo variet, nemo leprosus sit. Doctrina inconstans, 
 non habens unum colorem, mentis lepram significat : et 
 istam Christus mundat.' — St. August. Sermo clxxvii. 
 tom. V. p. 1 21 7. D., ed. Paris, 1837. 
 
 Leprosy ifi the house. — ' Men, clothes, and stones have 
 not the same sort of diseases ; but the names of human 
 diseases are by analogy (or, as the Grammarian terms it, 
 by figure of speech) applied to the diseases of other 
 things. In Berne, for instance, they speak of the cancer 
 of buildings^ but then that is not the distemper so called 
 in the human body. The cancer of buildings is with equal 
 propriety a Swiss, as the leprosy of buildings is a Hebrew, 
 expression .... [In Egypt] two sorts of diseases of 
 certain trees, proceeding from insects, are there termed 
 leprosy .... Hasselquist likewise has (in p. 'X'X\ of his 
 Travels in the Holy Land) spoken of a leprosy in the fig- 
 trees.' — Michaelis, Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, 
 vol. iii. p. ij88 ; Lond. 1814. 
 
 Diseases of the Nervous System^ p. 81. — The R. V. 
 translates o-eXryi'taferat in Matt. xvii. 15 'epileptic,' and 
 not lunatic, as given in the A. V. But if this new reading 
 be accepted as the more correct, the subject of the 
 miracle was none the less 'insane,' even if the words 
 'and the devil (or demon) went out from him' imply 
 something more than ordinary insanity. The new French 
 Version of Dr. L. Segond retains the term ' lunatique,' 
 and says, ' Jesus menaga le ddmon qui sortit de lui.' 
 
NOTES. 143 
 
 Wool-sorters Disease^ p. 53. — Although the disease 
 thus called has only recently become known to us, my 
 friend Dr. Aquila Smith has favoured me with some 
 extracts from old Latin authors, which describe very 
 analogous cattle diseases, and among them the follow- 
 ing : — ' Anno 1552 Medicinam faciente in Lucensium 
 balneis collega meo narrabit Francisc, de Pergtda, ejus 
 loci Lucensium nomine Vicarius, ibi circa pagum Mena- 
 biam supra balnea in fine Maij morbum quendam in- 
 vasisse pecora tam pestilentem, ut statim corrupta 
 tumescentia conciderent mortua. Rusticos vero cum id 
 animadvertissent, quaedam, subito affecta, e vestigio 
 mactasse, in quibus ita erat observatum ut si horum in- 
 fectorum sanguis nudum contingeret hominis corpus, An- 
 thraces procrearet, qui (quod mirum erat), non patefacti 
 erant innoxii: aperti autem et confestim cauterio non 
 notati latissime serpebant, et aliquibus mortis erant causa. 
 Caro pecorum recens laesorum et mactatorum cocta co- 
 mestaque nihil inferebat incommodi : at jus carnis lethale 
 potanti deprehensum est. Comprimis autem a sanguine 
 et visceribus talium brutorum cavendum, cum haec veneni 
 sint delubra.' 
 
 L. C. F. Garmanni, de Miraculis Mortuorum Libri 
 Tres. Opus Physico Medicum editum a L. J. H. Gar- 
 manico : Dresdae et Lipsise, M.DCC.IX. 4to. p. 373. 
 
 HezekiaKs Disease, — Dr. Green informs me that the 
 word translated 'lump' i^.N^cake) of 'figs' is d'bhelah, 
 and is generally used without the name of the fruit, this 
 being implied. The dried figs were pressed together in 
 the form of a cake, as now, for better keeping. In the 
 passages relating to Hezekiah, and in these only the 
 word for figs is added. The meaning cannot possibly 
 be anything else than a ' cake of figs ' (used as a plaster). 
 There can be no doubt that in this form figs were used 
 as a remedy, both in ancient and modern times, and that 
 in certain cases they are both convenient and efficient 
 forms of poultice. It may be a question what was the 
 precise nature of the ' burning tumor ' of Hezekiah, though 
 
144 THE DISEASES OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 we think the view we have taken that it was a carbuncle 
 is by far the most probable. My friend, Dr. Lauder 
 Brunton, tells me that he has been led to view the disease 
 as * tonsillitis ' from the similarity of the symptoms de- 
 scribed by Isaiah with those of some cases of quinsy 
 (tonsillitis). 'In many cases,' says Dr. Brunton, *that 
 I have seen, the pains in the bones have been so severe 
 as to attract the attention of the patient, to the exclusion 
 of all mention of sore throat/ ' If Hezekiah suffered 
 from tonsillitis his comparison of a lion breaking his 
 bones is a very apt one, and the swelling of the tonsils 
 would also explain the alteration in his speech, which 
 made him " chatter like a crane or a swallow." The dried 
 figs would be almost the only poultice that could be ap- 
 plied to the boil in his fauces, and the rapid maturation 
 of the inflamed boil in the throat affected by the poultice 
 would explain the rapid recovery.' 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Adler, the venerable and learned chief 
 Rabbi of the London Synagogue, has kindly favoured 
 me with the following criticisms which will be read with 
 the interest and appreciation which such an authority 
 justly deserves : — 
 
 P. 31, concerning netheq. The Mishna in the Trea- 
 tise on Plagues regards netheq, in accordance with Dr. 
 Green's view, as a scurf on the head, the hairs of which 
 are to be torn. The words, v. 0^% * it shall be shaven ' 
 are explained by the Aramaic Targum to mean ' round 
 the spot,' not very near to the spot. 
 
 Tradition does not regard bohaq as a white eruption, 
 but as a brilliantly shining spot through a mixture of 
 white and red colour. In the Aramaic language we find 
 frequently the verb bohaq used so. 
 
 P. 36. It is not proved that no cleansing took place 
 with regard to Miriam. The words. Num. ^^ii. 15, ' the 
 people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again,' 
 may mean that she was cleansed between the time of 
 her shutting in and coming out of the camp. 
 
NOTES. 145 
 
 P. 37. It seems that the leprosy was contagious, be- 
 cause the patient had to cry : ' Unclean, unclean ! ' when 
 he was brought out of the camp ; cf. Deut. xxiv. 8-9. To 
 prevent infection, he had to sit alone, and when his malady 
 was fatal, he was placed in a kind of infirmary, called in 
 Hebrew n''K^snn jvz (Beth Hachopshith), literally the House 
 of Freedom (free from anxiety to infect others, or because 
 in the same he was taken care for), wherein King Asa 
 dwelt (i Kings xv. 5 and 2 Chron. xxvi. 21). 
 
 P. 41. There is not the least doubt that, when the 
 Temple was standing, the laws of cleanliness were prac- 
 tically carried out. The Mishna in the above-mentioned 
 treatise (14. 13) relates that the Jewish inhabitants of Alex- 
 andria asked a question of Rabbi Joshua about two lepers. 
 
 P. 42. The question, What was the difference between 
 lepers and non-lepers, since, according to Num. v. 2-4, 
 both are excluded from the camp ? is answered in the 
 above-mentioned that the non-lepers were excluded from 
 the portion of the Tabernacle, called the camp of the 
 Levites and Israelites, while the lepers were excluded 
 from the whole camp. 
 
 P. 57. Omitted the plague called Ketef ^tji?., which 
 A. V. renders ' destruction.' Mentioned four times in the 
 Old Testament — Deut. xxxii. 24, Isa. xxviii. 2, Ps. xci. 6, 
 Hos. xiii. 14. 
 
 P. 68. Omitted the pestilence, when the Israelites 
 joined unto Baal-peor (Num. xxv. 9-15). 
 
 P. 116. Concerning the passage Eccl. xii. 5. Our 
 commentaries explain it in connection with the former 
 part of the verse about the difficulty the aged experience 
 in walking : * The almond-tree refuses.' The former 
 celerity which is symbolised by the almond-tree that 
 advances its blossoms before other trees, and is called in 
 Hebrew "I PK^ from the same verb s/iakod=h3,sten: re- 
 fuses or contradicts from the verb T^J noaz -, also the 
 following part — ' The jumping grasshopper shall become 
 a burden : ' the old man is unable to skip or jump. 
 
 K 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aaron, his prayer for Miriam, 35. 
 
 yEneas, case of, 94. 
 
 Agatharchides, on fiery serpents, 137. 
 
 Aleppo boil, 67. 
 
 Almond tree, the, 116. 
 
 Andrew, St., crucifixion of, 122. 
 
 Anthrax, 66. 
 
 Arungzebe boil, 67. 
 
 Augustine, on leprosy, 48 ; on man, 115. 
 
 Bacillus anthracis, 66. 
 
 Bagdad sore, 6-j. 
 
 Baron, Dr., on small-pox, 7a 
 
 Bartimaeus, case of, 78. 
 
 Belcher, Dr., on leprosy, 31, 42. 
 
 Black death, the, 61. 
 
 Blains, etymology of word, 65. 
 
 Blind, the, Scripture references to, 76 ; in 
 
 Cairo and Formosa, 80. 
 Blind men, two, case of, 77. 
 Blood, the, coagulation of, 132. 
 Bloody flux, cure of, 73. 
 Boils, etymology of word, 64 ; diagnosis 
 
 of, 65. 
 Borneo, case of leprosy in, 47. 
 Botch, etymology of word, 100. 
 Bruce, Robert, a leper, 27. 
 Brugsch, his reference to leprosy, 42. 
 Brunelli, on leprosy, 47. 
 Bubo-plague, the, 56 ; diagnosis of, 61 ; 
 
 mortality of, 62. 
 
 Cairo, blind in, 80. 
 
 Caper-berry, 116. 
 
 Carbuncles, diagnosfs of, 65, 66. 
 
 Carter, Dr. V., on leprosy, 42* 
 
 Cataract, 78. 
 
 Celsus, on vitiligo, 39, 43. 
 
 Centurion's servant, th«, case of, 94. 
 
 Chaplain, Dr., on leprosy, 34. 
 
 Child of St. Lazarus, 33. 
 
 Chinese views of leprosy, 27. 
 
 Christ, physical cause of death of, iig. 
 
 Chrysostom, on death of Christ, 124. 
 
 Coagulation of the blood, 132. 
 
 Constantinus Africanus, his treatise on 
 
 leprosy, 17. 
 Consumption, 72. 
 Crassamentum, 133. 
 
 Damien, Father, case of, sa 
 Dathe, on boils, 65. 
 David, God's judgment on, 62. 
 — before Saul, 84. 
 Demoniacal possession, 81. 
 
 Dracunculus, the, 137. 
 
 Dudgeon, Dr., his report on Peking, 27. 
 
 Dysentery, cure of, 73. 
 
 Egypt, ophthalmia in, 76. 
 
 Elephantiasis Graecorum, diagnosis of, 22. 
 
 See Leprosy. 
 Ely mas, case of, 77. 
 Embolism, 105. 
 Epiphytic diseases, 21. 
 
 Faith healing, 97. 
 
 Fevers, description of, 71 ; Scriptural 
 
 references to, 72. 
 Fiery serpents, 135. 
 Filaria Medinensis, 137. 
 Formosa, blind in, 8a 
 Fungoid diseases, 21. 
 
 Gairdner, Dr., on leprosy, 47. 
 Gehazi, leprosy of, 36. 
 Good, Dr. Mason, on leprosy, ^x. 
 Grasshopper, the, 116. 
 Greenhill, Dr., on leprosy, 16, 51. 
 Guinea-worm, the, 137. 
 
 Hasselquist, on quails, 58. 
 
 Haye or hooded serpent, 136. 
 
 Heart, the description of, 126. 
 
 Hemiplegia, 93. 
 
 Herod Agrippa I, disease of, 102. 
 
 Hezekiah, disease of, 104. 
 
 Hillebrand, Dr., on leprosy, 47. 
 
 Hippocrates, on leprosy, 45; on fevers, 
 
 72 ; on blindness, 77. 
 Hirsch, on leprosy, 47. 
 
 Impetigo, 32. 
 
 Impotent man at Bethesda, case of, 94. 
 
 Insanity, diagnosis of, 86, 90. 
 
 Jehoram, King, disease of, 72. 
 Jeroboam, disease of, 105. 
 Jews, leprosy among, 42, 5X. 
 Job, disease of, 99. 
 
 Josephus, on leprosy, 37 ; on death of 
 Herod, 102. 
 
 Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, judgment 
 
 on, 59. 
 Kiichenmeister, on fiery serpents, 135. 
 
 La grosse maladie, or leprosy, 26. 
 Leper, etymology of term, 30. 
 Lepra alphos, 31. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 147 
 
 Lepra Arabum, diagnosis of, 2a. 
 
 Lepra leuke, 31. 
 
 Lepra melas, 31. 
 
 Lepra vulgaris, 16. 
 
 Leprosy, etymologj'^ of the term, 15 ; con- 
 fusion concerning it, ^ 17 ; diagnosis of 
 psoriasis, 19 ; diagnosis of Elephantiasis 
 Graecorum, 22 ; hospitals for, 25 ; in 
 Scotland, 25 ; frequency of, 26 ; cures 
 for, 26 ; causes of, 27 ; characteristics 
 of Levitical disease, 28 ; philological 
 difficulties, 30 ; varieties of, 31 ; signs of, 
 33 ; Moses, 33 ; Miriam, 35 ; Naaman 
 and Gehazi, 37 ; Uzziah, 37 ; Scriptural 
 regulations concerning, 38 ; in the New 
 Testament, 43 ; contagion of, 45 ; used 
 as a type of sin, 48 ; heredity of, 49 ; 
 modern Christian treatment of, 53 ; census 
 of, 54- 
 
 Leprosy Hebrseorum, 42. 
 
 Livingstone's, Christian, cure for leprosy, 
 26. 
 
 Lunacy, 81. 
 
 Lycanthropia, 90. 
 
 Malignant pustule, 66. 
 
 Manual for curates on treatment of lepers, 
 
 24. 
 Maundrell, on leprosy, 44. 
 Mead, on old age, 112, 117. 
 Mercurialis, on leprosy, 18. 
 Mickle-ail, term for leprosy, 26. 
 Miriam, leprosy of, 35. 
 Mission to lepers in India, 54. 
 Moissac, miraculous fountain at, 26. 
 Morbus pedicularis, 103. 
 Moses, leprosy of, 34, 
 
 Naaman, leprosy of, 37. 
 Nebuchadnezzar, disease of, 88. 
 Nobleman's son, case of, 74. 
 Norway, leprosy in, 48, 54. 
 
 Ophthalmia in Egypt, 76. 
 Oribasius, on the plague, 56. 
 Origen, on crucifixion, 122. 
 
 Palsy, diagnosis of, 92 ; case of one sick 
 
 of. 93- 
 Paralysis, diagnosis of, 92. 
 Paraplegia, 93. 
 Pasteur, on splenic fever, 67. 
 Penn, Granville, on death of Christ, 123. 
 Pestilence, 62, 72. 
 Philo, on leprosy, 45. 
 Philo the Jew, on the plague of boils and 
 
 blains, 70. 
 Phlyctaense, 32. 
 Phthiriasis, 103. 
 Plague, etymology of term, 56 ; Scriptural 
 
 references to, 57 ; diagnosis of, 61 ; 
 
 mortality of, 62. 
 Plagues of Egypt, the, 65, 68. 
 
 Pof or Spooch Adder, 136. 
 
 Proetus, daughters of, their insanity, QX. 
 
 Psoriasis, diagnosis of, 19. 
 
 Publius, father of, case of, 73, 
 
 Quail of Scripture, 57. 
 
 Reill, on leprosy, 50 
 Rhazes, on small- pox, 70. 
 RosenmuUer, on boils, 65. 
 Rufus, on the plague, 56. 
 
 Sahafati, 32. 
 
 St. Paul, blindness of, 77. 
 
 Sambolsky, on the Filaria, 139. 
 
 Sandwich Islands, leprosy in, 55. 
 
 Saul, disease of, 83. 
 
 Scabies, complicated with elephantiasis, 
 
 48 ; with psoriasis, 49. 
 Schenck, on bloody sweat, 130. 
 Scotland, leprosy in, 25. 
 Scott, Michael, his cure for leprosy, 26. 
 Serum, of blood, 133. 
 Shunammite woman's son, case of, 106. 
 Siberian plague, 66. 
 Simon the leper, case of, 44. 
 Simon's wife's mother, case of, 74. 
 Simpson, Sir J. Y., on leper hospitals, 25 ; 
 
 on signs of leprosy, 33. 
 Small-pox, recent origin of, 59 ; history of 
 
 70, 
 Splenic fever, 66. 
 Stapfer, Dr., on leprosy, 51. 
 Stroud, Dr., on cause of death of Christ, 
 
 119. 
 Sykes, Col., on quails, 58. 
 Syrian army, blindness of, 77. 
 
 Tangier, leprosy in, 42. 
 
 Temple, Bishop, on miracles, 97. 
 
 Ten lepers, healing of, 43. 
 
 Tetrao-Israelitorum, the, 58. 
 
 Thomson, Dr., on appearance of lepers, 24. 
 
 Thrombus, 130. 
 
 Tissot, on bloody sweat, 13b. 
 
 Turkish soldiers attacked by Filaria, 139. 
 
 Uzziah, leprosy of, 37. 
 
 Victor, Bishop of Amiternum, crucifixion 
 of, 122. 
 
 Viper, 135. 
 
 Virgil, on daughters of Proetus, 91, 
 
 Vitiligo of Celsus, 31, 32. 
 
 Withered hand, a, case of man with, 96. 
 Woman with a spirit of infirmity, case of, 
 
 95- 
 Wool-sorters' disease, 53, 66. 
 Worms, Herod's death caused by, 102. 
 
 Xavier de Maistre, his interview with a 
 leper, 28. 
 
INDEX OF SCRIPTURE REFERENCES. 
 
 Exodus. 
 
 iv. 6 3o» 34 
 
 ix. 8 et seq 64 
 
 XV. 26 13 
 
 xvi. 20 103 
 
 Leviticus. 
 
 xiii 12, 15, 29 
 
 „ 2, 6, 10 30, 31 
 
 ,, 12 41 
 
 „ 12, 13 38,44 
 
 ,, 14-16 18 
 
 » 18, 30, 39 31 
 
 XIV 12, 15, 29, 38 
 
 ,» .44. 55 30 
 
 xxvi. 16 72 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 V. 2-4 42 
 
 xi. 3ietseq 57 
 
 » 33 58 
 
 xu. 10 30> 35 
 
 xiv. 37 57 
 
 x\i. 28-30 59 
 
 xxi. 4 135 
 
 Deuteronomy. 
 
 viii. 15 135 
 
 xxviii. 21, 22 72 
 
 „ 27, 35 20 
 
 » 29 103 
 
 » 35 100 
 
 1 Samuel. 
 
 xvi. 14 et seq 83, 84 
 
 2 Samuel. 
 
 X .12 62 
 
 I Kings. 
 
 viii. 37, 38 62 
 
 xiii. 4-6 105 
 
 2 Kings. 
 
 iv. 18-37 106 
 
 v. I, 27 37 
 
 vi. 18 77 
 
 vii.3 38 
 
 XX. 1 104 
 
 2 Chronicles. 
 
 xvi. 12 11 
 
 xxi.^ 12 et seq 73 
 
 xxvi. 19-21 37 
 
 xxxii. 24 104 
 
 Job. 
 
 ii. 4 etseq 99 
 
 ».. 7 31 
 
 vu. s 103 
 
 „ 14 101 
 
 xvi. 8 loi 
 
 Psalms. 
 
 Ixxiii 63 
 
 xc. 10 117 
 
 ciii. 3 13 
 
 Ecclesiastes. 
 xii. 1-7 108, 109 
 
 Isaiah. 
 
 xiv. 29 135 
 
 XXX. 6 135 
 
 „ 26 13 
 
 xxxviii. I 104 
 
 >, 21 105 
 
 Daniel. 
 iv. 29 etseq 89 
 
 Zechariah. 
 xiv. 12 63 
 
 Matthew. 
 
 iv. 24 82 
 
 viii. 6 94 
 
 P 93 
 
 IX. 27-31 77 
 
 XI1.9-13 96 
 
 „ 22 78 
 
 xvii. 15 83 
 
 Mark. 
 
 !!: 93 
 
 in. 1-5 96 
 
 V. 26 II 
 
 viii. 22-26 79 
 
 X. 46-52 78 
 
 Luke. 
 
 iv.38,39 74 
 
 V 93 
 
 v.iz 44 
 
 VI. 6-11 96 
 
 vii. 2 94 
 
 vii. 21 82 
 
 viii. 43 II 
 
 xiii. 11-17 95 
 
 xvii. 12-19 43 
 
 xviii. 35-43 78 
 
 xxii. 41-44 128 
 
 John. 
 
 iv. 52 74 
 
 V. 2-9 94 
 
 V. 4 95 
 
 Acts. 
 
 vii. 22 13 
 
 ix 77 
 
 IX. 33 94 
 
 xn. 21-23 102 
 
 xiii. II 77 
 
 xxviii. 8 73 
 
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