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Medicine

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Medicine

(, teruphahh a medical powder, Eze 47:12; Sept. , comp. of Rev 22:2; Vulg. medicina; also the plur. , rephuoth’, medicaments, or remedies for wounds, Jer 30:13; Jer 46:11; healed, Eze 30:21; but ,gehah’, in Pro 17:12, is properly the removal of the bandages from a sore, hence its healing; therefore render, a joyful heart perfects a cure ). In the following article we endeavor as far as possible to treat the subject from the modern scientific point of view. SEE HEAL

I. Sources of Medical Science among the Hebrews.-

1. Natural. Next to care for food, clothing, and shelter, the curing of hurts takes precedence even among savage nations. At a later period comes the treatment of sickness; and recognition of states of disease, and these mark a nascent civilization. Internal diseases, and all for which an obvious cause cannot be assigned, are in the most early period viewed as the visitation of God, or as the act of some malignant power, human as the evil eye or else superhuman, and to be dealt with by sorcery, or some other occult supposed agency. The Indian notion is that all diseases are the work of an evil spirit (Sprengel, Gesch. der Arzeneikunde, 2:48). But among a civilized race the pre-eminence of the medical art is confessed in proportion to the increased value set on human life, and the vastly greater amount of comfort and enjoyment of which civilized man is capable.

2. Egyptian. It would be strange if their close connection historically with Egypt had not imbued the Israelites with a strong appreciation of the value of this art, and with some considerable degree of medical culture. From the most ancient testimonies, sacred and secular, Egypt, from whatever cause, though perhaps from necessity, was foremost among the nations in this most human of studies purely physical. Again, as the active intelligence of Greece flowed in upon her, and mingled with the immense store of pathological records which must have accumulated under the system described by Herodotus, Egypt, especially Alexandria, became the medical repertory and museum of the world. Thither all that was best worth preserving amid earlier civilizations, whether her own or foreign, had been attracted, and medicine and surgery flourished amid political decadence and artistic decline. The attempt has been made by a French writer (Renouard, Histoire de’ Medicine depuis son Origine, etc.) to arrange in periods the growth of the medical art as follows

1st. The Primitive or Instinctive Period, lasting from the earliest recorded treatment to the fall of Troy.

2dly. The Sacred or Mystic Period, lasting till the dispersion of the Pythagorean Society, BC. 500.

3dly. The Philosophical Period, closing with the foundation of the Alexandrian Library, BC. 320.

4thly. The Anatomical Period, which continued till the death of Galen, AD. 200.

But these artificial lines do not strictly exhibit the truth of the matter. Egypt was the earliest home of medical and other skill for the region of the Mediterranean basin, and every Egyptian mummy of the more expensive and elaborate sort involved a process of anatomy. This gave opportunities. of inspecting a vast number of bodies, varying in every possible condition. Such opportunities were sure to be turned to account (Pliny, N. H. 19:5) by the more diligent among the faculty, for the physicians embalmed (Genesis 1, 2). The intestines had a separate receptacle assigned them, or were restored to the body: through the ventral incision (Wilkinson, v. 468); and every such process which we can trace in the mummies discovered shows the most minute accuracy of manipulation. Notwithstanding these laborious efforts, we have no trace of any philosophical or rational system of Egyptian origin, and medicine in Egypt was a mere art or profession. Of science the Asclepiadae of Greece were the true originators. Hippocrates, who wrote a book on Ancient Medicine, and who seems to have had many opportunities of access to foreign sources, gives no prominence to Egypt. It was no doubt owing to the repressive influences of her fixed institutions that this country did not attain to a vast and speedy proficiency in medical science, when post mortem examination was so general a rule instead of being a rare exception. Still it is impossible to believe that considerable advances in physiology could have failed to be made there from time to time, and similarly, though we cannot so well determine how far, in Assyria. Recent researches at Kuyunjik have given proof, it is said of the use of the-microscope in minute devices, and yielded up even specimens of magnifying lenses. A cone engraved with a table of cubes, so small as to be unintelligible without a lens, was brought home by Sir H. Rawlinson, and is now in the British Museum. As to whether the invention was brought to bear on medical science, proof is wanting. Probably such science had not yet been pushed to the point at which the microscope becomes useful. Only those who have quick keen eyes for the nature world feel the want of such spectacles. The best guarantee for the advance of medical science is, after all, the interest which every human being has in it, and this is most strongly felt in large gregarious masses of population. Compared with the wild countries around them, at any rate, Egypt must have seemed incalculably advance. Hence the awe with which Homer’s Greeks speak of her wealth, resources, and medical skill (II 9:3 1; Od. 4:229. See also Herod. 2:84, and 1:77). The simple heroes had reverence for the healing skill which extended only to wounds. There is hardly Any recognition of disease in Homer. There is sudden death, pestilence, and weary old age, but hardly any fixed morbid condition, save in a simile (Od. v. 395). See, however, a letter De rebus ex Homnero medicis, D. G. Wolf (Wittenberg, 1791). So likewise even the visit of Abraham, though prior to this period, found Egypt no doubt in advance of other countries. Representations of earl, Egyptian surgery apparently occur on some of the monuments of Beni-Hassan. Flint knives used for embalming have been recovered; the Ethiopic stone of Herodotus (2. 86; comp. Ezekiel 4:25) was probably either black flint or agate SEE KNIFE, and those who have assisted at the opening of a mummy have noticed that the teeth exhibit a dentistry not inferior in execution to the work of the best modern experts. | This confirms the statement of Herodotus that every part of the body was studied by a distinct practitioner. Pliny (7. 57) asserts that the Egyptians claimed the invention of the healing art, and (26. 1) thinks them subject to many diseases. Their many medicines are mentioned (Jer 46:11). Many valuable drugs may be derived from the plants mentioned by Wilkinson (iv. 621). and the senna of the adjacent interior of Africa still excels all other. Athothmes II, king :of the country, is said to have written on the subject of anatomy. Hermes (who may perhaps be the same as Athothmes, intellect personified, only disguised as a deity instead of a legendary king), was said to have written six books on medicine, in which an entire chapter was devoted to diseases of the eye (Rawlinson’s Herod. note to 2:84), and the first half of which related to anatomy. The various recipes known to have been beneficial were recorded, with their peculiar cases, in the memoirs of physic, inscribed among the laws, and deposited in the principal temples of the place (Wilkinson, 3:396, 397). The reputation of its practitioners in historical times was such that both Cyrus and Darius sent to Egypt for physicians or surgeons (Herod. 3:1, 129-132); and by one of the same country, no doubt, Cambyses’s wound was tended, though not, perhaps, with much zeal for his recovery.

Of midwifery we have a distinct notice (Exo 1:15), and of women as its practitioners, which fact may also be verified from the sculptures (Rawlinson’s note on Herod, 2:84). The sex of the practitioners is clear from the Hebrews grammatical forms. The names of two, Shiphrah and Puah are recorded. The treatment of new-born Hebrew infants is mentioned (Eze 16:4) as consisting in washing, salting, and swaddling-this last was not used in Egypt (Wilkinson). The physicians had salaries from the public treasury, and treated always according to established precedents, or deviated from these at their peril, in case of a fatal termination if, however, the patient died under accredited treatment, no blame was attached. They treated gratis patients when travelling or on military service. Most diseases were by them ascribed to indigestion and excessive eating (Diod. Sicul. 1:82), and when their science failed them magic was called in. On recovery it was also customary to suspend in a temple an exvoto, which was commonly a model of the part affected; and such offerings doubtless, as in. the Coan Temple of Esculapius, became valuable aids to the pathological student. The Egyptians who lived in the corn-growing region are said by Herodotus (ii. 77) to have been specially attentive to health. The practise of circumcision is traceable on monuments certainly anterior to the age of Joseph. Its antiquity is involved in obscurity, especially as all we know of the Egyptians makes it. unlikely that they would have borrowed such a practice, so late as the period of Abraham, from any mere sojourner among’ them. Its beneficial effects in the temperature of Egypt and Syria have often been noticed, especially as a preservative of cleanliness, etc. The scrupulous attention paid to the dead was favorable to the health of. the living. Such powerful drugs as asphaltum, natron, resin, pure bitumen, and various, aromaticgums, suppressed or counteracted all noxious effluvia from the corpse; even the saw-dust of the floor, on which the body had been cleansed, was collected in small linen bags, which, to the number of twenty or thirty, were deposited in vases near the tomb (Wilkinson, v. 468, 469). For. the extent to which these practices were imitated among the Jews, SEE EMBALMING.

At any rate, the uncleanness imputed to contact with a corpse was a powerful preservative against the inoculation of the livings frame with morbid -humors: But, to pursue to later times this merely general question, it appears (Pliny, N. H. 19:5) that the Ptolemies themselves practiced dissection, and that, at a period when Jewish intercourse with Egypt was complete and reciprocal, there existed in Alexandria a great deal for anatomical study. The only influence of importance which would tend to check the Jews from sharing this was the ceremonial law, the special reverence of Jewish feeling towards human remains, and the abhorrence of uncleanness. Yet those Jews and there were, at all times since the Captivity, not a few, perhaps who tended to foreign laxity, and affected Greek. philosophy and. culture, would assuredly, as we shall have further occasion to notice that they in fact did, enlarge their anatomical knowledge from sources which repelled their stricter brethren, and the result would be apparent in the general elevated standard of that profession, even as practiced in Jerusalem. The diffusion of Christianity in the 3d and 4th centuries exercised a similar but more universal restraint on the dissecting-room; until anatomy as a pursuit became extinct, and, the notion of profaneness quelling everywhere such researches, surgical science became stagnant to a degree to which it had never previously sunk within the memory of human records.

3. Grecian.-In comparing the growth of medicine in the rest of the ancient world, the high rank of its practitioners princes and heroes-settles at once the question as to the esteem in which it was held in the Homeric and preHomeric period. To descend to the historical, the story of Democedes at the court of Darius illustrates the practice of Greek surgery before the. period of Hippocrates anticipating, in its gentler waiting upon nature, as compared (Herod. 3:130) with that of the Persians and Egyptians, the methods, and maxims of that father of physic, who wrote against the theories and speculations of the so-called Philosophical school, and was a true empiricist before that sect was formularized. The Dogmatic school was founded after his time by his disciples,. who departed from his eminently practical and inductive method. It recognized hidden causes of health and sickness arising from certain supposed principles or elements, out of which bodies were composed, and by virtue of which all their parts and members were tempered together and became sympathetic. Hippocrates has some curious remarks on the sympathy of men with climate, seasons, etc. He himself rejected supernatural accounts of disease, and especially demoniacal possession.

He refers, but with no mystical sense, to numbers as furnishing a rule for cases. It is remarkable that he extols the discernment of Orientals above Westerns, and of Asiatics above Europeans, in medical diagnosis. The Empirical school, which arose in the 3d century BC., under the guidance of Acron of Agrigentum, Serapion of Alexandria, and Philinus of Cos, waited for the symptoms of every case, disregarding the rules of practice based on dogmatic principles. Amongits votaries was a Zachalias (perhaps Zacharias, and possibly a Jew) of Babylon, who (Pliny, N. H 37:10; comp. 36:10) dedicated a book on medicine to Mithridates the Great; its views were also supported by Heroddotus of Tarsus, a place which, next to Alexandria, became distinguished for its schools of philosophy and medicine; as also by a Jew named Theodas, or Theudas, of Laodicea (see Wunderbar, Biblisch- Talmudische Medicin, 1:25), but a student of Alexandria, and the last, or nearly so, of the empiricists whom its schools produced. The remarks of Theudas on the right method of observing, and the value of experience, and his book on medicine, now lost, in which he arranged his subject under the heads of indicatoria, curatoria, and salubris, earned him high reputation as a champion of empiricism against the reproaches of the dogmatists, though they were subsequently impugned by Galen and. Theodosius of Tripoli. His period was that from Titus to. Hadrian., The empiricists held that observation and the application of known remedies in one case to others presumed to be similar constitute the whole art of cultivating medicine. Though their views were narrow, and their information scanty when compared with some of the chiefs of the other sects, and although they rejected as useless and unattainable all knowledge of the causes and recondite nature of diseases, it is undeniable that, besides personal experience, they freely availed themselves of historical detail, and of a. strict analogy founded upon observation and the resemblance of phenomena (Dr. Adams, Paul. AEgin. ed. Sydenham Soc.).

This school, however, was opposed by another, known as the Methodic, which had arisen under the leading of Themison, also of Laodicea, about the period of Pompey the Great. Asclepiades paved the way for the method in question, finding a theoretic basis in the corpuscular or atomic theory of physics which he borrowed from Heraclides of Pontus. He had passed some early years in Alexandria, and thence came to Rome shortly before Cicero’s time (Quo nos medico amicoque usi sumus, Cicero, de Orat. 1:14).: He was a transitional link between the Dogmatic arid Empiric schools and this :later, or. Methodic (Sprengel, ut sup. pt. v. 16), that sought to rescue medicine from the bewildering mass of particulars into which empiricism had plunged it. He reduced diseases to: two classes, chronic arid acute, and endeavored likewise to simplify remedies. In the meanwhile, the most judicious of medical theories since Hippocrates, Celsus, of the Augustan period had reviewed medicine in the light which all these schools afforded, land, not professing any distinct teaching, but borrowing from all, may be viewed as eclectic. He translated Hippocrates largely verbatim; quoting in a less degree Asclepiades and others. Antonius Musa, whose cold-water cure, after its successful trial on Augustus himself, became generally popular, seems to have had little of scientific basis, but by the usual method, or the usual accidents, became merely the fashionable practitioner of his day in Rome. Attalia, near Tarsus, furnished also, shortly after the period of Celsus, Athenaeus, the leader of the last of the schools of medicine which divided the ancient world, under the name of the Pneumatic, holding the tenet of an ethereal principle () residing in the microcosm, by means of which the mind performed the functions of the body. This is also traceable in Hippocrates, and was an established opinion of the Stoics. It was exemplified in the innate heat, (Aret. de Caus. et Sign. Morb. Chron. ii; 13), and the calidum innatum of modern physiologists, especially in the 17th century (Dr. Adams, Pref. Aretceus, ed. Sydelh. Soc.).

4. Effect of these Systems.-It is clear that all these schools may easily have contributed to form the medical opinions current at the period, of the N.T.; that the two earlier among them may have influenced rabbinical teaching on that subject at a much earlier period; and that, especially at the time of Alexander’s visit to Jerusalem, the Jewish people, whom he favored and protected, had an opportunity of largely gathering from the medical lore of the West. It was necessary, therefore, to pass in brief review the growth of the latter, and especially to note the points at which it intersects the medical progress of the Jews. Greek Asiatic medicine culminated in Galen, who was, however, still but a commentator on his Western predecessors, and who stands literally without rival, successor, or disciple of note, till the period when Greek learning was reawakened by the Arabian intellect. The Arabs, however, continued to build wholly upon Hippocrates and Galen, save in so far as their advance in chemical science improved their pharmacopoeia: this may be seen on reference to the works of Rhazes, AD. 930, and Haly Abbas. AD. 980. The first mention of small-pox is ascribed to Rhazes, who, however, quotes several earlier writers on the subject. Mohammed himself is said to have been versed in medicine, and to have compiled some aphorisms upon it; and a herbalist literature was always extensively followed in the East from the days of Solomon downwards (Freind’s History of Medicine, 2:5,:27). Galen himself belongs to the period of the Antonines, but he appears to have been acquainted with the writings of Moses, and to have travelled in quest of medical experience over Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, as well as Greece, and a large part of the West, and, in particular, to have visited the banks of the Jordan in quest of opobalsamum, and the coasts of the Dead Sea to obtain samples of bitumen. He also mentions Palestine as producing a watery wine, suitable for the drink of feeble patients.

II. Historical Notices. Having thus described the external influences which, if any, were probably most potent in forming the medical practice of the Hebrews, we may trace next its internal growth. The cabalistic legends mix up the names of Shem and Heber in their fables about healing, and ascribe to those patriarchs a knowledge of simples and rare roots, with, of course, magic spells and occult powers, such as have clouded the history of medicine from the earliest times down to the 17th century.

1. In the Old Testament. So to Abraham is ascribed a talisman, the touch of which healed all disease. We know that such simple surgical skill as the operation for circumcision implies was Abraham’s; but severer operations than this are constantly required in the flock and herd, and those who watch carefully the habits of animals can hardly fail to amass some guiding principles applicable to man and beast alike. Beyond this, there was probably nothing but such ordinary obstetrical craft as has always been traditional among the women of rude tribes, that could be classed as medical lore in the family of the patriarch, until his sojourn brought him among the more cultivated Philistines and Egyptians. The only notices which Scripture affords in connection with the subject are’ the cases of difficult midwifery in the successive households of Isaac, Jacob, and Judah (Gen 25:26; Gen 24:17; Gen 38:27), and so, later, in that of Phinehas 2 Samuel 4:19). :Doubts have been raised as to the possibility of twins being born, one holding the other’s heel; but there does not seem to be any such limit to the operations of nature as an objection on that score would imply. After all it was perhaps only just such a relative position of the limbs of the infants at the. mere moment of birth as would suggest the holding by the heel. The midwives, it seems, in case of twins, were called upon to distinguish the first-born, to whom important privileges appertained. The tying on of a thread or ribbon was an easy way of preventing mistake, and the assistant in the case of Tamar seized the earliest possible moment for doing it. When the hand or foot of a living child protrudes, it is to be pushed up, and the head made to present (Paul. AEgin. ed Sydenh. Soc. 1:648, Hippocr. quoted by Dr Adans). This probably the midwife did, at the same time marking him as first-born in virtue of being thus presented first. The precise meaning of the doubtful expression in Gen 38:27 and mag. is discussed by Wunderbar, ut sup. p. 50, in reference both to the children and to the mother. Of Rachel a Jewish commentator says, Multis etiam ex itinere difficultatibus praegressis,viribusque post diu protractos dolores exhaustis, atonia uteri, forsan quidem hemorrhagia in pariendo mortua est (ibid.). The traditional value ascribed to the mandrake, in regard to generative functions, relates to the same branch of natural medicine; but throughout this period there occurs no trace of any attempt to study, digest, and systematize the subject.

But, as Israel grew and multiplied in Egypt, they doubtless derived a large mental cultivation from their position until cruel policy turned it into bondage; even then Moses was rescued from the lot of his brethren, and became learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, including, of course, medicine and cognate sciences (Clem. Alex. i, p. 413), and those attainments, perhaps, became suggestive of future laws. Some practical skill in metallurgy is evident from Exo 32:20. But, if we admit Egyptian learning as an ingredient, we should also notice how far exalted above it is the standard of the whole Jewish legislative fabric, in its exemption from the blemishes of sorcery and juggling pretences. The priest, who had to pronounce on the cure, used no means to advance it, and the whole regulations prescribed exclude the notion of trafficking in popular superstition. We have no occult practices reserved in the hands of the sacred caste. It is God alone who doeth great things, working by the wand of Moses, or the brazen serpent; but the very mention of such instruments is such as to expel all pretence of mysterious virtues in the things themselves. Hence various allusions to God’s healing mercy, and the title Jehovah that healeth (Exo 15:26; Jer 17:14; Jer 30:17; Psa 103:3; Psa 147:3; Isa 30:26). Nor was the practice of physic a privilege of the’ Jewish priesthood. Any one might practice it, and this publicity must have kept it pure. Nay, there was no scriptural bar to its practice by resident aliens. We read of physicians, healing, etc., Exo 21:19; 2Ki 8:29; :2Ch 16:12; Jer 8:22. At the same time the greater leisure of the Levites and their other advantages would make the the students of the nation, as a rule, in all science, and their constant residence in cities would give. them the opportunity, if carried out in fact, of a far wider field of observation.

The reign of peace in Solomon’s days must have opened, especially with renewed. Egyptian intercourse new facilities for the study. He himself seems to have included in his favorite natural history some knowledge of the medicinal uses of the creatures. His works show him conversant with the motion of; remedial treatment (Pro 3:8; Pro 6:15; Pro 12:18; Pro 12:22; Pro 20:30; Pro 29:1; Ecc 3:3); and one passage (Ecc 12:3-4) indicates considerable knowledge of anatomy. His repute in magic is the universal theme of Eastern story. It has even been thought he had recourse to the shrine of Esculapius at Sidon, and enriched his resources by its records-or relics; but there is some doubt whether this temple was of such high antiquity. Solomon, however, we cannot doubt, would have turned to the account, not only of wealth but of knowledge, his peaceful reign, wide dominion, and wider renown, and would have sought to traffic in learning as well as in wheat and gold. To him the Talmudists ascribe all volume of cures ( ), of which they make frequent mention (Fabricius, Cod. Pseudep. V. T. p. 1043). Josephus (Ant. 8:2) mentions his knowledge of medicine, and the use of spells by him to expel daemons who cause sicknesses, which is continued among us, he adds, to this time. The dealings of. various prophets with quasimedical agency cannot be’ regarded as other than the mere accidental torn which their miraculous gifts took (1Ki 13:6; 1Ki 14:12; 1Ki 17:17; 2Ki 1:4; 2Ki 20:7; Isa 38:21). Jewish tradition has invested Elisha it would seem, with a function more largely medicinal than that of the other servants of God; but the scriptural evidence on the point is scanty, save that he appears to have known at once the proper means to apply to heal the waters, and temper the noxious pottage (2Ki 2:21; 2Ki 4:39-41).

His healing the Shinammite’s son has been discussed as a case of suspended animation and of animal magnetism applied to resuscitate it; but the narrative clearly implies that the death was real As regards the lepros, had the Jordan commonly possessed the healing power which Naaman’s faith and obedience found in it, would there have been many lepers in Israel in the days of Eliseus the prophet, or in any other- days? Further, if our Lord’s words (Luk 4:27) are to be taken literally, Elisha’s reputation could not have; been founded on any succession of lepers healed.: The washing was a part of the enjoined illustration of the leper after his cure was complete; Naaman was to act as though clean, like the ten men that were lepers,bidden to go and show themselves to the priest in either case it, Was as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. The sickness of Benhadad is certainly so described as to imply treachery on the part of Hazael (2Ki 8:15). Yet the observation of Bruce, upon a cold- water cure practiced among the! people near the Red Sea, has suggested a view somewhat different. The bed-clothes -are. soaked with cold water, and kept thoroughly wet, and the patient drinks cold water freely. But the crisis, it seems occurs on the third day, and not till the fifth is it there usual to apply this treatment. If the chamberlain, through carelessness,’ ignorance, or treachery, precipitated the application, a fatal issue may have suddenly resulted. The brazen serpent, once the means of healing, and worshipped idolatrously in Hezekiah’s reign, is supposed to have acquired those honors under its Esculapian aspect. This notion is not inconsistent with the Scripture narrative, though not therein traceable. It is supposed that something in the volume of cures, current under the authority of Solomon, may have conduced to the establishment Of these rites, and drawn away the popular homage, especially in prayers during sickness, or thanksgivings after recovery from Jehovah. The statement that king Asa (2Ch 16:12) sought not to Jehovah but to the physicians, may seem to countenance the notion that a rivalry of actual worship, based on some medical fancies, had beer set up, and would so far support the Talmudical tradition.

The captivity of Babylon brought the Jews into contact with a new sphere of thought. Their chief men rose to thy highest honors, and an improved mental culture among a large section of the captives was no doubt the result which they imported on their return. Wunderbar regards the Babylonian captivity as parallel it its effects to the Egyptian bondage, and seems to think that the people would return debased from its influence. On the contrary, those whom subjection had made ignoble and unpatriotic would remain. If any returned it was a pledge that they were not so impaired; and, if not impaired, they would certainly be improved by the discipline they had undergone. He also thinks that sorcery had the largest share in any Babylonian or Persian system of medicine. This is assuming too much there were magicians in Egypt, but physicians also (see above)of high cultivation. Human nature has so great an interest in human life that only in the savage, rudimentary societies is its economy left thus involved in phantasms. The earliest steps of civilization include something of medicine. Of course superstitions’ are found copiously involved in such medical tenets, but this is not equivalent to abandoning the study to a class of professed magicians.

Thus in the Ueberreste de;- altbabylonischen Literatur, p. 123, by D. Chwolson, St. Petersb. 1859 (the value of which is not, however, yet ascertained), a writer on poisons claims to have a magic antidote, but declines stating what it is, as it is not his business to mention such things, and he only does so in cases where the charm is in connection with medical treatment and resembles it; the magicians, adds the same writer on another occasion, use a particular means of cure, but he declines to impart it, having a repugnance to witchcraft. So (p. 125-6) we find traces of charms introduced into Babylonian treatises on medical science, but apologetically; and as if against sounder knowledge. Similarly, the opinion of fatalism is not without its influence on medicine; but it is chiefly resorted to where, as often happens in pestilence, all known aid seems useless. We know, however, too little of the precise. state of medicine in Babylon, Susa; and the cities of the Medes, to determine the direction in- which the impulse so derived would have led the exiles; but the confluence of streams of thought. from opposite sources, which impregnate each other, would surely produce a tendency to sift established practice and accepted axioms, to set up a new standard by which to try the current rules of art, and to determine new lines of inquiry for any eager spirits disposed to search for truth. Thus the visit of Democedes to the court of Darius, though it seems to be an isolated fact, points to a general opening of Oriental manners to Greek influence, which was not too late to leave its traces in some-perhaps of the contemporaries of Ezra. That great reformer, with the leaders of national thought gathered about him, could not fail to recognise medicine among the salutary measures which distinguished his epoch. Whatever advantages the Levites had possessed in earlier days were now speedily lost even as regards the study of the divine law, and much more therefore as regards that of medicine; into which competitors would crowd fin proportion to its broader and more obvious human. interest, and effectually demolish any narrowing barriers of established privilege, if such previously existed.

2. In the Interval between the Old and the New Testament.-It may be observed that the priests in their ministrations, who performed at all seasons of the year barefoot on stone pavement, and without perhaps any variation of dress to meet that of temperature, were peculiarly liable to sickness (Kall, De Morbis Sacerdotum, Hafn. 1745). Hence the permanent appointment of a Temple physician has been supposed by some, and a certain Ben-Ahijah is mentioned by Wunderbar as occurring in the Talmud in that capacity. But it rather appears as if such an officer’s appointment were precarious, and varied with the demands of the ministrants.

The book of Ecclesiasticus shows the increased regard given to the distinct study of medicine by the repeated mention of physicians, etc., which it contains, and which, as probably belonging to the period of the Ptolemies, it might be expected to show. The wisdom of prevention is recognised in Sir 18:19; perhaps also in Sir 10:10. Rank and honor are said to be the portion of the physician, and his office to be from the Lord (Sir 38:1; Sir 38:3; Sir 38:12). The repeated allusions to sickness in Sir 7:35; Sir 30:17; Sir 31:22; Sir 37:30; Sir 38:9, coupled with the former recognition of merit, have caused some to suppose that this author was himself a physician. If he was so, the power of mind and wide range of observation shown in his work would give a favorable impression of the standard of practitioners; if he was not, the great general popularity of the study and practice may be inferred from its thus becoming a common topic of general advice offered by a non-professional writer. In Wis 16:12, plaister is spoken of; anointing, as a means of healing, in Job 6:8.

3. In the New Testament. Luke, the beloved physician, who practiced at Antioch while the body was his care, could hardly have failed to be conversant with all the leading opinions current down to his own time. Situated between the great schools of Alexandria and Cilicia, within easy sea-transit of both, as well as of the Western homes of science, Antioch enjoyed a more central position than any great city of the ancient world, and in it accordingly all the streams of contemporary medical learning may have probably found a point of confluence. The medicine of the New Test. is not solely, nor even chiefly, Jewish medicine; and even if it were, it is clear that the more mankind became mixed by intercourse, the more medical opinion and practice must have ceased to be exclusive. The great number of Jews resident in Rome and Greece about the Christian aera, and the successive decrees by which their banishment from the former was proclaimed, must have imported, even into Palestine, whatever from the West was best worth knowing; and we may be as sure that it’s medicine and surgery expanded under these influences as that, in the writings of the. Talmudists, such obligations would be unacknowledged. But, beyond this, the growth of large mercantile communities, such as existed in Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Ephesus. of itself involves a peculiar sanitary condition from the mass of human elements gathered to a focus under new or abnormal circumstances. Nor are the words in which an eloquent modern writer describes the course of this action less applicable to the case of an ancient than to that of a modern metropolis. Diseases once indigenous to a section of humanity, are slowly but surely creeping up to commercial centres, whence they will be rapidly propagated. One form of Asiatic leprosy is approaching the Levant from Arabia. The history of every disease which is communicated from man to man establishes this melancholy truth, that ultimately such maladies overleap all obstacles of climate, and demonstrate a solidarity in evil as well as in good among the brotherhood of nations (Dr. Ferguson, Pref. Essay to Gooch on Diseases of Women, New Sydenham Society, London, 1859, p. xlvi)., In proportion as this melancholy truth is perceived would an intercommunication of medical science prevail also.

4. In Contemporary Heathen Writers. The medicine and surgery referred to in the New Test., then, was probably not inferior to that commonly in demand among educated Asiatic Greeks, and must have been, as regards its basis Greek medicine, and not Jewish. Hence a standard Gentile medical writer, if any is to be found of that period, would best represent the profession to which the evangelist belonged. Without absolute certainty as to date, we seem to have such a writer in Areteus, commonly called the Cappadocian, who wrote certainly after Nero’s reign began, and probably flourished shortly before and after the decade in which Paul reached Rome and Jerusalem fell. If he were of Luke’s age, it is striking that he should also be perhaps the only ancient medical authority. in favor of daemoniacal possession as a possible account of epilepsy. If his country be rightly indicated by his surname, we know that it gave him the means of intercourse with both the Jews and the Christians of the apostolic period (Act 2:9; 1Pe 1:1). It is very likely that Tarsus, the nearest place of academic repute to that region, was the scene of, at any rate, the earlier studies of Areteeus, nor would any chronological difficulty prevent his having been a pupil in medicine there when Paul and also, perhaps, Barnabas Were, as is probable, pursuing their early studies in other subjects at the same spot. Aretseus, then, assuming the date above indicated, may be taken as expounding the medical practice of the Asiatic Greeks in the latter half of the first century. There is, however, much of strongly-marked individuality in his work, more especially in the minute verbal portraiture of disease. That of pulmonary consumption in particular, is traced with the careful description of an eye-witness, and represents with a curious exactness the curved nails, shrunken fingers, slender, sharpened nostrils, hollow, glazy eye, cadaverous look and hue; the waste of muscle and startling prominence of bones, the scapula standing off like the wing of a bird; as also the habit of body marking predisposition to the malady, the thin, veneer-like frames, the limbs like pinions, the prominent throat and shallow-chest, with a remark that moist and cold climates -are the haunts of it (. ).

His work exhibits strong traits here and there of the Pneumatic school, as in his statement regarding lethargy, that it is frigidity implanted by nature; concerning elephantiasis even more emphatically, that it is a refrigeration of the innate heat, or, rather, a congregation as it were one great winter of the system. The same views betray themselves in his statement regarding the blood, that it is the warming principle of all the parts; that diabetes is a sort of dropsy, both exhibiting the watery principle; and that the effect of white hellebore is as that of fire: so that whatever fire does by burning, hellebore effects still more by penetrating inwardly. The last remark shows that he gave some scope to his imagination, which indeed we might illustrate from some of his pathological descriptions; e.g. that of elephantiasis, where the resemblance of the beast to the afflicted human being is wrought to a fanciful parallel. Allowing for such overstrained touches here and there, we may say that he generally avoids extravagant crotchets, and rests chiefly on wide observation, and on the common-sense which sobers theory and rationalizes facts. He hardly ever quotes an authority; and though much of what he states was taught before, it is dealt with as the common property of science, or as become sui juris through being proved by his own experience. The freedom with which he follows or rejects earlier opinions has occasioned him to be classed by some among the Eclectic school. His work is divided into-I, the causes and signs of (1) acute and (2) chronic diseases; and, II, the curative treatment of (1) acute and (2) chronic diseases. His boldness of treatment is exemplified in his. selection of the vein to be opened in a wide range of parts the arm, ankle, tongue, nose, etc. He first has a distinct mention of leeches, which Themison is said to have introduced; and in this respect his surgical resources appear to be in advance of Celsus. He was familiar with the operation for the stone in the bladder, and prescribes, as Celsus also does, the use of the catheter, where its insertion is not prevented by inflammation, then the incision into the neck of the bladder, nearly as in modern lithotomy.

His views of the internal economy were a strange mixture of truth and error, and the disuse of anatomy was no doubt the reason why this was the weak point of his teaching. He held that the work of producing the blood pertained to the liver, which is the root of the veins; that the bile was distributed from the gall-bladder to the intestines; and, if this vesica became gorged, the bile was thrown back into the veins, and by them diffused over the system. He regarded the nerves as the source of sensation and motion; and had some notion of them as branching in pairs from the spine. Thus he has a curious statement as regards paralysis, that in the case of any sensational point below the head, e.g. from the membrane of the spinal marrow being affected injuriously, the parts on the right side will be paralyzed if the nerve towards the right side be hurt, and similarly, conversely, of the left side; but that if the head itself be so affected, the inverse law of consequence holds concerning the parts related, since each nerve passes over to the other side from that of its origin, decussating each other in the form of the letter X. The doctrine of the Pneuma, or ethereal principle existing in the microcosm by which the mind performs all the functions of the body, holds a more prominent position in the works of Aretaeus than in those of any of the other authorities (Dr. Adams’s Preface to Aret. p. x, xi). He was aware that the nervous function of sensation was distinct from the motive power; that either might cease and the other continue. His pharmacopoeia is copious and reasonable, and the limits of the usefulness of this or that drug are laid down judiciously. He makes large use of wine, and prescribing the kind and the number of cyathi to be taken; and some words of his on stomach disorders ( ) forcibly recall those of Paul to Timothy (1Ti 5:23), and one might almost suppose them to have been suggested by the intenser spirituality of his Jewish or Christian patients. Such disorders, he says, are common to those who toil in teaching, whose yearning is after divine instruction, who despise delicate and varied diet, whose nourishment is fasting, and whose drink is water. As a purge of melancholy, he prescribes a little wine, and some other more liberal sustenance. In his essay on causus, or brain fever, he describes the powers acquired by the soul before dissolution in the following remarkable words: Every sense is pure, the intellect acute, the gnostic powers prophetic; for they prognosticate to themselves in the first place their own departure from life; then they foretell what will afterwards take place to those present, who fancy sometimes that they are delirious: but these persons wonder at the result of what has been’ said. Others also talk to certain of the dead, perchance they alone perceiving them to be present, in virtue of their acute and pure sense, or perchance from their soul seeing beforehand, and announcing the men with whom they are about to associate. For formerly they were immersed in humors, as if in mud and darkness; but when the disease has drained these off, and taken away the mist from their eyes, they perceive those things which are in the air, and, through the soul being unencumbered, become true prophets. To those who wish further to pursue the study of medicine at this sera, the edition of Aretaeus by the Sydenham Society, and in a less degree that by Boerhaave (Lugd. Bat. 1735). to which the references have here been made, may be recommended.

As the general science of medicine and surgery of this period may be represented by Areteus, so we have nearly a representation of its Materia Medica by Dioscorides. He too was of the same general region-a Cilician Greek-and his first lessons were probably learnt at Tarsus. His period is tinged by the same uncertainty as that of Aretaeus; but he has usually been assigned to the end of the first or beginning of the second century (see Smith, Dict. of Class. Biog. s.v.). He was the first author of high mark who devoted his attention to Materia Medica. Indeed, this branch of ancient science remained as he left it till the times of the Arabians; and these, though they enlarged the supply of drugs and pharmacy, yet copy and repeat Dioscorides, as, indeed, Galen himself often does, on all common subject-matter. Above 90 minerals, 700 plants, and 168 animal substances are said to be described in the researches of Dioscorides, displaying an industry and skill which has remained the marvel of all subsequent commentators. Pliny, copious, rare, and curious as he is, yet, for want of scientific medical knowledge, is little esteemed in this particular branch, save when he follows Dioscorides. The third volume of Paulus AEgin. (ed. Sydenham Soc.) contains a catalogue of medicines simple and compound, and the large proportion in which the authority of Dioscorides has contributed to form it will be manifest at the most cursory inspection. To abridge such a subject is impossible, and to transcribe it in the most meagre form would be far beyond the limits of this article.

III. Pathology in the Bible.-Before proceeding to the examination of diseases in detail, it may be well to observe that the question of identity between any ancient malady known by description and any modern one known by experience is often doubtful. Some diseases, just as some plants and some animals, will exist almost anywhere; others can only be produced within narrow limits depending on the conditions of climate, habit, etc.-and were only equal observation applied to the two, the habitat of a disease might be mapped as accurately as that of a plant. It is also possible that some diseases once extremely prevalent may run their course and die out, or occur only casually; just as it seems certain that, since the Middle Ages, some maladies have been introduced into Europe which were previously unknown. See Biblioth. Script. Med. (Geneva, 1731), s.v.; Hippocrates, Celsus, Galen; Leclerc’s History of Medicine (Paris, 1723; transl. London, 179f); Freind’s History of Medicine.

1. General Maladies. Eruptive diseases of the acute kind are more prevalent in the East than in colder climes. They also run their course more rapidly; e.g. common itch, which in Scotland remains for a longer time vesicular, becomes, in Syria, pustular as early sometimes as the third day. The origin of it is now supposed to be an acarus, but the parasite perishes when removed from the skin. Disease of various kinds is commonly regarded as a divine infliction, or denounced as a penalty for transgression; the evil diseases of Egypt (perhaps in reference to some of the ten plagues) are especially so characterized (Gen 20:18; Exo 15:26; Lev 26:16; Deu 7:15; Deu 28:60; 1Co 11:30); so the emerods SEE HAEMORRHOIDS of the Philistines (1Sa 5:6) ; the severe dysentery (2Ch 21:15; 2Ch 21:19) of Jehoram, which was also epidemic SEE BLOOD, ISSUE OF; and SEE FEVER, the peculiar symptom of which may perhaps have been prolapsus ani (Dr. Mason Good, 1:311-13, mentions a case of the entire colon exposed); or, perhaps, what is known as diarrhaea tubularis, formed by the coagulation of fibrine into a membrane discharged from the inner coat of the intestines, which takes the mould of the bowel, and is thus expelled; so the sudden deaths of Er, Onan (Gen 38:7; Gen 38:10), the Egyptian first-born (Exo 11:4-5), Nabal, Bathsheba’s son, and Jeroboam’s (1Sa 25:38; 2Sa 12:15; 1Ki 14:1; 1Ki 14:5), are ascribed to the action of Jehovah immediately, or through a prophet. Pestilence (Hab 3:5) attends his path (comp. 2Sa 24:15), and is innoxious to those whom he shelters (Psa 91:3-10).

It is by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Amos associated (as historically in 2Sa 24:13) with the sword and famine (Jer 14:12; Jer 15:2; Jer 21:7; Jer 21:9; Jer 24:10; Jer 27:8; Jer 27:13; Jer 28:8; Jer 29:17-18; Jer 32:24; Jer 32:36; Jer 34:17; Jer 38:2; Jer 42:17; Jer 42:22; Jer 44:13; Eze 5:12; Eze 5:17; Eze 6:11-12; Eze 7:15; Eze 12:16; Eze 14:21; Eze 33:27; Amo 4:6; Amo 4:10). The sicknesses of the widow’s son of Zarephath, of Ahaziah, Benhadad, the leprosy of Uzziah, the boil of Hezekiah, are also noticed as diseases sent-by Jehovah, or in which he interposed (1Ki 17:17; 1Ki 17:20; 1 Kings 2 Kings 1:3; 20:1). In 2Sa 3:29, disease is invoked as a curse, and in Solomon’s prayer (1Ki 8:37; comp. 2Ch 20:9) anticipated as a chastisement. Job and his friends agree in ascribing his disease to divine infliction; but the latter urge his sins as the cause. So, conversely, the healing character of God is invoked or promised (Psa 6:2; Psa 41:3; Psa 103:3; Jer 30:17). Satanic agency appears also as procuring disease (Job 2:7; Luk 13:11; Luk 13:16). Diseases are also mentioned as ordinary calamities; e.g. the sickness of old age, headache (perhaps by sunstroke), as that of the Shunammite’s son, that of Elisha, and that of Benhadad, and that of Joram (Gen 48:1; 1Sa 30:13; 2Ki 4:20; 2Ki 8:27; 2Ki 8:29; 2Ki 13:14; 2Ch 22:6).

2. Among special diseases mentioned in the Old Test. are, ophthalmia (Gen 29:17, )., which is perhaps more common in Syria and Egypt than anywhere else in the world, especially in the fig season, the juice of the newly-ripe fruit having the power of giving it. It may occasion partial or total blindness (2Ki 6:18). The eye-salve (, Rev 3:18; Hor. Sat. i) was a remedy common to Orientals, Greeks, and Romans (see Hippocr. ; Celsus, 6:8, De oculorum morbis, [2] De diversis collyriis). Other diseases are- barrenness of women, which mandrakes were supposed to have the power of correcting (Gen 20:18; comp. 12:17; 30:1, 2, 14-16); consumption, and several, the names of which are derived from various words, signifying to burn or to be hot (Lev 26:16; Deu 28:22) SEE FEVER; compare the kinds of fever distinguished by Hippocrates as and .

The burning boil, or of a boil (Lev 13:23, , Sept. ), is again merely marked by the notion of an effect resembling -that of fire, like the Greek , or our carbuncle; it may possibly find an equivalent in the Damascus boil of the present time. The botch () of Egypt (Deu 28:27) is so vague a term as to yield a. most uncertain sense; the plague, as known by its attendant bubo, has been suggested-by Scheuchzer. It is possible that the Elephantiasis Graecorum may be intended by , understood in the widest sense of a continued ulceration until the whole body, or the portion affected, may be regarded as one .

Of this disease some further notice will be taken below; at present it is observable that the same word is used to express the boil of Hezekiah. This was certainly a single locally-confined eruption, and was probably a carbuncle, one of which may well be fatal, though a single boil in our sense of the word seldom is so. Dr. Mead supposes it to have been a fever terminating in an abscess. The diseases rendered scab and scurvy in Lev 21:20; Lev 22:22; Deu 28:27, may be almost any skin-disease, such as those known under the names of lepra, psoriaris, pityriasis, icthyosis, favus, or common itch. Some of these may be said to approach the type of leprosy as laid down in Scripture, although they do not appear to have involved ceremonial defilement, but only a blemish disqualifying for the priestly office. The quality of being incurable is added as a special curse, for these diseases are not generally so, or at any rate are common in milder forms., The running of the reins (Lev 15:2-3; Lev 22:4, marg.) may perhaps mean gonorrhoea, or more probably blennorrhcea (mucous discharge). If we compare Num 25:1; Num 31:7, with Jos 22:17, there is ground for thinking that some disease of this class ‘derived from polluting sexual intercourse, remained among the people.

The existence of gonorrhoea in early times -save in the mild form- has been much disputed. Michel Levy (Traiti d’Hygine, p. 7) considers the affirmative as established by the above passage, and says of syphilis, Que pour notre part, nous n’avons jamais pu considerer comme une nouveaute du xve siecle. He certainly gives some strong historical evidence against the view that it was introduced into France by Spanish troops under Gonzalvo de Cordova’on their return from the New World, and so into the rest of Europe, where it was known as the morbus Gallicus. He adds, La syphilis est perdue confusdment dans la pathologie ancienne par. la diversite de ses symptomes et de ses altdrations; leur interpretation collective, et leur redaction en une seule unite morbide, a fait croire a l’introduction d’une maladie nouvelle. See also Freind’s History of Med., Dr. Mead, Michaelis, Reinhart (Bibelkrankheiten), Schmidt (Biblisch. Med.), and others. Wunderbar (BibTalm. Med. 3:20, commenting on Leviticus 15, and comparing Mishna, Zabim. 2:2, and Maimonides, ad loc.) thinks that gonorrhoea benigna was in the mind of the latter writers. Dr. Adams, the editor of Paul. AEgin. (Sydenh. Soc. 2:14), considers syphilis a modified form of elephantiasis. For all ancient notices of the cognate diseases, see that work, 1:593 sq. The issue of 15:19, may be the menorrhagia, the duration of which in the East is sometimes, when not checked by remedies, for an indefinite period (Mat 9:20), or uterine hemorrhage from other causes. In Deu 28:35 is mentioned a disease attacking the knees and legs, consisting in a sore botch which cannot be healed, but extended, in the sequel of the verse, from the sole of the foot to the top of the head. The latter part of the quotation would certainly accord with Elephantiasis Graecorum; but this, if the whole verse be a mere continuation of one described malady, would be in contradiction to the fact that this disease commences in the face, not in the lower members. On the other hand, a disease which affects the knees and legs, or more commonly one of them only-its principal feature being intumescence, distorting and altering all the proportions is by a mere accident of language known as Elephantiasis Arabum, Bucnemia Tropica (Rayer, 3:820-841), or Barbadoes leg, from being well known in that island. Supposing, however, that the affection of the knees and legs is something distinct, and that the latter part of the description applies to the Elephantiasis Graecorum, the incurable and all-pervading character of the malady are well expressed by it. This disease is what now passes under the name of leprosy (Michaelis, 3:259)-the lepers, e.g. of the huts near the Zion gate of modern Jerusalem are elephantiacs. It has been asserted that there are two kinds, one painful, the other painless; but, as regards Syria and the East, this is contradicted. There the parts affected are quite benumbed and lose sensation. It is classed as a tubercular disease, not confined to the skin, but pervading the tissues and destroying the bones. It is not confined to any age or either sex. It first appears in general, but not always, about the face, as an indurated nodule (hence it is improperly called tubercular), which gradually enlarges, inflames, and ulcerates. Sometimes it commences in the neck or arms.

The ulcers will heal spontaneously, but only after a long period, and after destroying a great deal of the neighboring parts. If a joint be attacked, the ulceration will go on till its destruction is complete, the joints of finger, toe, etc., dropping off one by one. Frightful dreams and fetid breath are symptoms mentioned by some pathologists. More nodules will develop themselves, and, if the face be the chief seat of the disease, it assumes a leonine aspect (hence called also Leontiasis), loathsome and hideous; the skin becomes thick, rugose, and livid; the eyes are fierce and staring, and the hair generally falls off from all the parts affected. When the throat is attacked the voice shares the affection, and sinks to a hoarse, husky whisper. These two symptoms are eminently characteristic. The patient will become bed-ridden, and, though a mass of bodily corruption, seems happy and contented with his sad condition, until, sinking exhausted under the ravages of the disease, he is generally carried off, at least in Syria, by diarrhoea. It is hereditary, and may be inoculated, but does not propagate itself by the closest contact; e.g. two women in the aforesaid leper-huts remained uncontaminated though their husbands were both affected, and yet the children born to them were, like the fathers, elephantisiac, and became so in early life. On the children of diseased parents a watch for the appearance of the malady is kept; but no; one is afraid of infection, and the neighbors mix freely with them, though, like the lepers of the Old Test., they live in a several house. Many have attributed to these wretched creatures a libido inexplebilis (see Proceedings of Med. and Chirurg. Soc. of London, Jan. 1860, 3:164, fromwhich some of the above remarks are taken). This is denied by Dr. Robert Sim (from a close study of the disease in Jerusalem), save insd’ far as idleness and inactivity, with animal wants supplied, may conduce to it. It became first prevalent in Europe during the crusades, and by their means was diffused, and the ambiguity of designating it leprosy then originated, and has been generally since retained. Pliny (Nat. Hist. xxvi, 5) asserts that it was unknown in Italy till the time of Pompey the Great, when it was imported from Egypt, but soon became extinct (Paul. AEgin. ed. Sydenh. Soc. 2:6). It is, however, broadly distinguished from the , etc. of the Greeks by name and symptoms, no less than by Roman medical and even popular writers; comp. Lucretius, whose mention of it’ is the earliest

Est elephas morbus,

qui propter flumina Nili,

Gignitur AEgypto in media,

neque piretelrea usquam.

It is nearly extinct in Europe, save in Spain and Norway. A case was seen lately in the Crimea, but may have been produced elsewhere. It prevails in Turkey and the Greek Archipelago. One case, however, indigenous in England, is recorded among the medical facsimiles at Guy’s Hospital. In Granada it was generally fatal after eight or ten years, whatever the treatment. This favors the correspondence of this disease with one of those evil diseases of Egypt, possibly its botch, threatened in Deu 33:27. This botch, however, seems more probably to mean the foul ulcer mentioned by Areteus (De Sign. et Caus. Maor. Acut.i, 9), and called by him or . He ascribes its frequency in Egypt to the mixed vegetable diet there followed, and to the use of the turbid water of the Nil:’ but adds that it is common in Coele-Syria.’ The Talmud speaks of the elephantiasis (Baba Kama, 80 b) as being moist without and dry within (Wunlderbar, Biblisch-Talmudische Med. Mes Heft, 10, 11). Advanced cases are said to have: a cancerous aspect, and some even class it as a form of cancer; a disease dependent on faults of nutrition;

It has been asserted that this, which is perhaps the most dreadful disease of the East, was Job’s malady. Origen, Hexapla on Job 2:7, mentions that one of the :Greek versions gives it, loc. cit., as the affliction which befel him. Wunderbar (ut sup. p. 10)’supposes it to have been the Tyrian leprosy, resting chiefly on the itching implied, as he:-supposes, by Job 2:7-8. Schmidt (Biblischer Med. 4:4) thinks the sore boil may indicate some graver disease, or complication of diseases. But there is no need to go beyond the statement of Scripture, which speaks not only of this boil, but of kin loathsome and broken, covered with worms and clods of dust; the second symptom is the result of the first’ and the worms are probably the larvae of some fly, known so to infest and make its nidus in any wound or sore exposed to the air, and to increase rapidly in’size. The clods of dust would of course follow from his sitting in ashes. The breath strange to his wife, if it be not a figurative expression for her estrangement from him, may imply a fetor, which in such a state of body hardly requires explanation. The expression my bowels boiled (Job 30:27) may refer to the burning sensation in the stomach and bowels, caused by acrid bile, which is common in ague. – Aretaeus (De Cur. Morb. Acut. 2:3) has a similar expression, , as attending syncope. The scaring dreams and terrifying visions are perhaps a mere symptom of the state of mind bewildered by unaccountable afflictions. The intense emaciation was (Job 33:21) perhaps the mere result of protracted sickness.

The disease of king Antiochus (2Ma 9:5-10, etc.) is that of a boil breeding worms (ulcus verminosunz). So Sulla, Pherecydes, and Alcman, the’ poet, are mentioned (Plut. Vita Sullae) as similar cases. The examples of both the Herods (Josephus, Ant. 17:6,5;; War, 1:33, 5) may also be adduced, as-that of Pheretime (Herod. 4:205). There is some doubt :whether this disease be not allied to phthiriasis, in which lice are bred, and cause ulcers. This condition may originate either in a’ sore, :or in a morbid habit of body brought on by uncleanliness, suppressed perspiration, or neglect; but the vermination, if it did not commence in a sore, would – produce one. Dr. Mason Good (iv. 504-6), speaking of , =cutaneous vermination, mentions a case in the Westminster Infirmary, and an opinion that universal phythiriasis was no unfrequent disease among the ancients; he also states (p. 500) that in gangrenous ulcers, especially in warm climates, innumerable grubs or maggots will appear almost every morning. The camel and other creatures, are known to be the habitat of similar parasites. There are also cases of vermination without any wound or faulty outward state, such as the Vena :Medinensis, known in Africa as the Guinea worm, of which Galen had heard only, breeding under the skin, and needing to be drawn out carefully by a needle, lest it break, when great soreness and suppuration succeed (Freind, Hist. of Med. i,’49; De Mandelslo’s Travels, p.-4; and Paul. AEgin. t. iv, ed. Sydenh. Soc.). Rayer (iii. 808-819) gives a list of parasites, most of them in the skin. This Guinea-worm, it appears, is also found in Arabia Petraea, on the coasts of the Caspian and Persian Gulf, on the Ganges, in Upper Egypt and Abyssinia (ib. 814). Dr. Mead refers Herod’s disease to , or intestinal worms. Shapter, without due foundation, objects that the word in that case should have been not , but (Medica Sacra, p. 188).

In Deu 28:65 it is possible that a palpitation of the heart is intended to be spoken of (comp. Gen 45:26). In Mar 9:17 : (comp. Luk 9:38) we have an apparent case of epilepsy, shown especially in the foaming, falling, wallowing, and similar violent symptoms mentioned; this might easily be a form of demoniacal manifestation. The case of extreme hunger recorded in 1 Samuel 14 was merely the result of exhaustive fatigue; but it is remarkable that the bulimia of which Xenophon speaks (Anab. iv 5, 7); was remedied by an application in which honey (compr.; 1Sa 14:27) was the chief ingredient.

Besides the common injuries of wounding, bruising, striking out eye, tooth, etc., we have in Exo 21:22 the case of miscarriage produced by a blow, push, etc., damaging the foetus.

The plague of boils and blains is not said to have been fatal to man, as the murrain preceding was to cattle; this alone would seem to contradict the notion of Shapter (Medica Sacra, p. 113), that the disorder in question was small-pox, which, wherever it has appeared, until mitigated by vaccination, has been fatal to a great part perhaps a majority of those seized. The small-pox also generally takes some days to :pronounce and mature, which seems opposed to the Mosaic account. The expression of Exo 9:10, a boil flourishing, or ebullient with blains, may perhaps be a disease analogous to phlegmonous erysipelas, or even common erysipelas, which is often accompanied by vesications such as the word blains might fitly describe. This is Dr. Robert Sim’s opinion. On comparing, however, the means used to produce the disorder (Exo 9:8), an analogy is perceptible to what is called bricklayer’s itch, and therefore to leprosy. A disease involving a white spot breaking forth from a boil related to leprosy, and clean or unclean according to symptoms specified, occurs under the general locus of leprosy (Lev 13:18-23).

The withered hand of Jeroboam (1Ki 13:4-6), and of the man (Mat 12:10-13; comp. Luk 6:10), is such an effect as is known to follow from the obliteration of the main artery of any member, or from paralysis of the principal nerve, either through disease or through injury. A case with a symptom exactly parallel to that of Jeroboam is mentioned in the life of Gabriel, an Arab physician. It was that of a woman whose band had become rigid in the act of swinging, and remained in the extended posture. The most remarkable feature in the case, as related, is the remedy, which consisted in alarm acting on the nerves, inducing a sudden and spontaneous effort to use the limb-an effort which, like that of the dumb son of Croesus (Herod. 1:85), was paradoxically successful. The case of the widow’s son restored by Elisha (2Ki 4:19), was probably one of sunstroke. The disease of Asa in his feet (Schmidt, Biblischer Med. 3:5, 2), which attacked him in his old age (1Ki 15:23; 2Ch 16:12), and became exceeding great, may have been either adema, dropsy, or podagra, gout. The former is common in aged persons, in whom, owing to the difficulty of the return upwards of the sluggish blood, its watery part stays in the feet. The latter, though rare in the East at present, is mentioned by the Talmudists (Sotah, 10 a, and Sanhedrin, 48 b), and there is no reason why it may not have been known in Asa’s time. It occurs in Hippocr. Aphor. vi, Prognost. 15; Celsus, 4:24; Aretseus, Morb. Chron. 2:12, and other ancient writers.

In 1Ma 6:8, occurs a mention of sickness of grief; in Sir 37:30, of sickness caused by excess, which require only a passing mention. The disease of Nebuchadnezzar has been viewed by Jahn as a mental and purely subjective malady. It is not easy to see how this satisfies the plain, emphatic statement of Dan 4:33, which seems to include, it is true, mental derangement, but to assert a degraded bodily state to some extent, and a corresponding change of habits. The eagles’ feathers and birds’ claws are probably used only in illustration, not necessarily as describing a new type to which the hair, etc., approximated. (Comp. the simile of Psa 103:5, and that of 2Ki 5:14.) We may regard it as Mead (Med. Sacr. vol. vii), following Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy, does, as a species of -the melancholy known as Lycanthropia (Paulus JEgin. 3:16; Avicenha, 3:1, 5, 22). Persons so affected wander like wolves in sepulchres by night, and imitate the howling of a wolf or a dog. Further, there are well-attested accounts of wild or half-wild human creatures, of. either sex, who have lived as beasts, losing human consciousness, and acquiring a superhuman ferocity, activity, and swiftness. Either the lycanthropic patients or these latter may furnish a partial analogy to Nebuchadnezzar in regard to the various points of modified outward appearance and habits ascribed to him. Nor would it seem impossible that a sustained lycanthropia might produce this latter condition.

Here should be noticed the mental malady of Saul. His melancholy seems to have had its origin in his sin; it was therefore grounded in his moral nature, but extended its effects, as commonly, to the intellectual. The evil spirit from God, whatever it mean, was no part of the medical features of his case, and may therefore be excluded from the present notice. Music, which soothed him for a while, has entered largely into the milder modern treatment of lunacy.

The palsy meets us in the New Test. only, and in features too familiar to need special remark. The words grievously tormented (Mat 8:6) have been commented on by Baier (De Paral. p. 32), to the effect that examples of acutely painful paralysis are not wanting in modern pathology, e.g. when paralysis is complicated with neuralgia. But if this statement be viewed with doubt, we might understand the Greek expression () as used of paralysis agitans, or even of chorea (StVitus’s dance), in both of which the patient, being never still for a moment save when asleep, might well be so described. The woman’s case who was bowed together by a spirit of infirmity may probably have. been paralytic (Luk 13:11). If the dorsal muscles were affected, those of the chest and abdomen, from want of resistance, would undergo contraction, and thus cause the patient to suffer as described.

Gangrene (, Celsus, 7:33, de gangrena), or mortification in its various forms, is a totally different disorder from the canker of the AV. in 2Ti 2:17. Both gangrene and cancer were common in all the countries familiar to the scriptural writers, and neither differs from the modern disease of the same name (Dr. M. Good, 2:669, etc., and 579, etc.).

In Isa 26:18; Psa 7:14, there seems an allusion to false conception, in which, though attended by pains of quasi-labor and other ordinary symptoms, the womb has been found unimpregnated, and no delivery has followed. The medical term (Dr. M. Good, 4:188) , mola ventosa, suggests the scriptural language, We have, as it were, brought forth wind ; the whole passage is figurative for disappointment after great effort.

Poison, as a means of destroying life, hardly occurs in the Bible, save as applied to arrows (Job 6:4). In Zec 12:2, the marg. gives poison as an alternative rendering, which does not seem preferable, intoxication being probably meant. In the annals of the Herods poisons occur as the resource of stealthy murder.

The bite or sting of venomous beasts can hardly be treated as a disease, but in connection with the fiery (i.e. venomous) serpents of Num 21:6, and the deliverance from death of those bitten, it deserves a notice. Even the Talmud acknowledges that the healing power lay not in the brazen serpent itself, but as soon as they feared the Most High, and uplifted their hearts to their heavenly Father, they were healed, and in default of this were brought to naught. Thus the brazen figure was symbolized only; or, according to the lovers of purely natural explanation, was the stage-trick to cover a false miracle. It was customary to consecrate the image of the affliction, either in its cause or in its effect, as in the golden emerods, golden mice, of 1Sa 6:4; 1Sa 6:8, and in the ex-votos common in Egypt even before the exodus; and these may be compared with the setting up of the brazen serpent. Thus we have in-it only an instance of the current custom, fanciful or superst tious, being sublimed to a higher purpose. The bite of a white she-mule, perhaps in the rutting season, is, according to the Talmudists, fatal; and they also mention that of a mad dog, with certain symptoms by which to discern his state (Wunderbar, ut sup. p. 21). The scorpion and centipede are natives of the Levant (Rev 9:5; Rev 9:10), and, with a large variety of serpents, swarm there. To these, according to Lichtenstein, should be added a venomous solpuga, or large spider, similar to the Calabrian tarantula; but the passage in Pliny adduced (H. N. 29:29) gives no satisfactory ground for the theory based upon it, that its bite was the cause of the emerods. It is, however, remarkable that Pliny mentions with some fulness a mus araneus-not a spider resembling a mouse, but a mouse resembling a spider-the shrewmouse, and called araneus, Isidore says from this resemblance, or from ifs eating spiders. Its bite was venomous, caused mortification of the part, and a spreading ulcer attended with inward griping pains, and when crushed on the wound it was its own best antidote. SEE DISEASE.

The disease of old age has acquired a place in Biblical nosology chiefly. owing. to the elegant allegory into which .The Preacher throws the succeeding tokens of the ravage of time on man (Ecclesiastes 12). The symptoms enumerated have. each their. significance for the physician;: for, though his art can do little to arrest them, they yet mark an altered condition calling for a treatment of its own. The Preacher divides the sum of human existence into that period which involves every mode of growth, and that which involves every mode of decline. The first reaches from the point of birth or even of generation, onwards to the attainment of the grand climacteric, and the second from that epoch backwards through a corresponding period of decline till the point of dissolution is reached. These are respectively called the and the of the rabbins (Wunderbar, 2tes. Heft). This latter course is marked in metaphor by the darkening of the great lights of nature, and the ensuing season of life is compared to the broken weather of the wet season, setting in when summer is gone, when after every shower fresh clouds are in the sky, as contrasted with the showers of other seasons, which pass away into clearness. Such he means are the ailments and troubles of declining age, as compared with those of advancing life. The keepers of the house are perhaps the ribs which support the frame, or the arms and shoulders which enwrap and protect it. Their trembling, especially that of the arms, etc., is a sure sign of vigor past. The strong men are its supporters, the lowerlimbs bowing themselves under the weight they once so lightly bore. The grinding hardly needs to be explained of the teeth, now become few. The lookers from the windows are the pupils of the eyes, now darkened, as Isaac’s were, and Eli’s; and Moses, though spared: the dimness, was yet in that very exemption a marvel (Genesis 27; comp. 48:10; 1Sa 4:15; Deu 34:7). The doors shut represent the dulness of those other senses which are the portals of knowledge; thus the taste and smell, as in the case of Barzillai, became impaired, and the ears stopped against sound. The rising up at the voice of a bird portrays the light, soon-fleeting, easily broken slumber of the aged man; or rather to the voice of the bird, i.e. the high key, the

big, manly voice

Now turn’d again to childish treble.

The daughters of music brought low suggest the cracked voice of age, or, as illustrated again by Barzillai, the failure in the discernment and the utterance of musical notes. The fears of old age are next noticed: They shall be afraid of that which is high ; an obscure expression, perhaps, for what are popularly called nervous terrors, exaggerating and magnifying every object of alarm, and making, as the saying is, mountains of mole- hills. Or, even more simply, these words may be understood as meaning that old men have neither vigor nor breath for going up hills, mountains, or anything else that is high nay, for them the plain, even the road has its terrors-they walk timidly and cautiously even. along that. Fear in the way is at first less obvious; but we observe that nothing unnerves and agitates an old person more than the prospect of a long journey. Thus regarded, it becomes a fine and subtile touch in the description of decrepitude. All readiness to haste is arrested, and a numb despondency succeeds. The flourishing of the almond-tree is still more obscure; but we observe this tree in Palestine blossoming when others show no sign of vegetation, and when it is dead winter all around-no ill type, perhaps, of the old man who has survived his own contemporaries and many of his juniors. Youthful zest dies out, and their strength, of which the grasshopper’? is probably a figure, is relaxed. The silver cord has been thought to be that of nervous sensation, or motion, or even the spinal marrow itself. Possibly some incapacity of retention may be signified by the golden bowl broken; the pitcher broken at the well suggests the vital supply stopping at the usual source derangement perhaps of the digestion or of the respiration; the wheel shivered at the cistern has been imagined to convey, through the image of the water-lifting process familiar in irrigation, the notion of the blood, pumped, as it were, through the vessels, and fertilizing the whole system; for the blood is the life.

IV. Hebrew Therapeutics. This careful register of the tokens of decline might lead us to expect great care for the preservation of health and strength; and this indeed is found to mark the Mosaic system, in the regulations concerning diet, the divers washings, and the pollution imputed to a corpse-nay, even in circumcision itself. These served not only the ceremonial purpose of imparting self-consciousness to the Hebrew, and keeping him distinct from alien admixture, but had a sanitary aspect of rare wisdom, when we regard the country, the climate, and the age. The laws of diet had the effect of tempering, by a just admixture of the organic substances of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, the regimen of Hebrew families, and thus providing for the vigor of future ages, as well as checking the stimulus which the predominant use of animal food gives to the passions. To these effects may be ascribed the immunity often enjoyed by the Hebrew race amid epidemics devastating the countries of their sojourn. The best and often the sole possible exercise of medicine is to prevent disease. Moses could not legislate for cure, but his rules did for the great mass of the people what no therapeutics, however consummate, could do-they gave the best security for the public health by provisions incorporated in the public economy. Whether we regard the laws which secluded the leper as designed to prevent infection or repress the dread of it, their wisdom is nearly equal, for of all terrors the imaginary are the most terrible. The laws restricting marriage have in general a similar tendency, degeneracy being the penalty of a departure from those which forbid commixture of near kin. Michel Ldvy remarks on the salubrious tendency of the law of marital separation (Leviticus 15) imposed (Levy, Traite de, Hygiene, p. 8).

The precept also concerning purity on the necessary occasions in a desert encampment (Dent. 23:12-14), enjoining the return of the elements of productiveness to the soil, would probably become the basis of the municipal regulations having for their object a similar purity in towns. The consequences of its neglect in such encampments is shown by an example quoted by Michel Levy, as mentioned by M. de Lamartine (ib. 8, 9). Length of life was regarded as a mark of divine favor, and the divine legislator had pointed out the means of ordinarily insuring a fuller measure of it. to the people at large than could, according to physical laws, otherwise be hoped for. Perhaps the extraordinary means taken to-prolong vitality may be’ referred to this source (1Ki 1:2), and there is no reason why the case of David should be deemed a singular one. We may also compare the apparent influence of vital warmth enhanced to a miraculous degree, but having, perhaps, a physical law as its basis, in the cases of Elijah, Elisha, and the sons of the widow of Zarephath, and the Shunammite. Wunderbar has collected several examples of such influence similarly exerted, which, however, he seems to exaggerate to an absurd pitch. Yet it would seem not against analogy to suppose that, as pernicious exhalations, miasmata, etc., may pass from the sick and affect the healthy, so there should be a reciprocal action in favor of health. The climate of Palestine afforded a great range, of temperature within a narrow compass- e.g. a long sea coast, a long, deep valley (that of the Jordan), a broad, flat; plain (Esdraelon), a large portion of table-land (Judah and Ephraim), and the higher elevations of Carmel, Tabor, the lesser and greater Hermon, etc. Thus it partakes of nearly all supportable climates. In October its rainy reason begins with moist westerly winds.

In November the trees are bare. In December snow and ice are often found, but never lie long, and only during the north wind’s prevalence. The cold disappears at the end of February, and the latter rain sets in, lasting through March to the middle of April, when thunder-storms apt common, torrents swell, and the heat rises in the low grounds. At the end of April the hot season begins, but preserves moderation till June, thence till September becomes extreme; and during all this period rain seldom occurs, but often heavy dews prevail. In September it commences to be cool, first at night, and sometimes the rain begins to fall at the end of it. The migration with the season from an inland to a sea-coast position, from low to high ground, etc., was a point of social development never systematically reached during the scriptural history of Palestine. But men inhabiting the same regions for centuries could hardly fail to notice the connection between the air and moisture of a place and human health, and those favored by circumstances would certainly turn their knowledge to account. The Talmudists speak of the north wind as preservative of life, and the south and east winds as exhaustive, but the south as the most insupportable of all, coming hot and dry from the deserts, producing abortion, tainting the babe yet unborn, and corroding the pearls in the sea. Further, they dissuade from performing circumcision or venesection during its prevalence (Jebamoth, 72 a, ap Wunderbar, 2tes Heft, vol. ii, A). It is stated that the marriage-bed placed. between north and south will be blessed with male issue (Berachoih, 15, ib.), which may, Wunderbar thinks, be interpreted of the temperature when moderate, and in neither extreme (which these winds respectively represent), as most favoring fecundity. If the fact be so, it is more probably related to the phenomena of magnetism, in connection with which the same theory has been lately revived. A number of precepts are given by the same authorities in reference to health; e.g. eating slowly, not contracting a sedentary habit, regularity in natural operations, cheerfulness of temperament, due sleep (especially early morning sleep is recommended), but not somnolence by day (Wunderbar, ut sup.). We may mention likewise in this connection that possession of an abundance of salt tended to banish much disease (Psa 60:2; 2Sa 8:13; 1Ch 18:12). Salt-pits (Zep 2:9) are still dug by the Arabs on the shore of the Dead Sea. For the use of salt to a new-born infant, Eze 16:4; comp. Galen, De Sanit. lib. i, cap. 7.

The rite of circumcision, besides its special surgical operation, deserves some notice in connection with the general question of the health, longevity, and fecundity of the race with whose history it is identified. Besides being a mark of the covenant and a symbol of purity, it was perhaps also a protest against the phallus-worship, which has a remote antiquity in the corruption of mankind, and of which we have some trace in the Egyptian myth of Osiris. It has been asserted also (Wunderbar, 3tes Heft, p. 25) that it distinctly contributed to increase the fruitfulness of the race, and to check inordinate desires in the individual. Its beneficial effects in such a climate as that of Egypt and Syria, as tending to promote cleanliness, to prevent or reduce irritation, and thereby to stop the way against various disorders, have been. the subject of comment to various writers on hygiene. In particular a troublesome and sometimes fatal kind of boil (phymosis and paraphymosis) is mentioned as occurring commonly in those regions, but only to the uncircumcised. It is stated by Josephus (Cont. Rev 2:13) that Apion, against whom he wrote, having at first derided circumcision, was circumcised of necessity by reason of such a boil, of which, after suffering great pain, he died. Philo also appears to speak of the same benefit wen he speaks of the anthrax infesting those who retain the foreskin. Medical authorities have also stated that the capacity of imbibing syphilitic virus is less, and that this has been proved experimentally by comparing Jewish with other, e.g. Christian populations (Wunderbar, 3tes Heft, p. 27). The operation itself consisted of originally a mere incision, to which a further stripping off the skin from the part, and a custom of sucking the blood from the wound, was in a later period added, owing to the attempts of Jews of the Maccabaean period, and later (1Ma 1:15; Josephus, Ant. 12:5,1: comp. 1Co 7:8), to cultivate heathen practices. The reduction of the remaining portion of the praeputium after the more simple operation, so as to cover what it had exposed, known as epispasmus, accomplished by the elasticity of the skin itself, was what this anti-Judaic practice sought to effect, and what the later, more complicated and severe, operation. frustrated. To these were subjoined the use of the warm-bath, before and after the operation, pounded cummin as a styptic, and a mixture of wine and oil to heal the wound. It is remarkable that the tightly-swathed rollers, which formed the first covering of the new-born child (Luk 2:7), are still retained among modern Jews at the circumcision of a child, effectually preventing any movement of the body or limbs (Wunderbar, p. 29). SEE CIRCUMCISION.

No surgical operation beyond this finds a place in holy Scripture, unless, indeed, that adverted to under the article SEE EUNUCH. The Talmudists speak of two operations to assist birth, one known as (gastrotomia), and intended to assist parturition, not necessarily fatal to the mother; the other known as (hysterotomia, sectio caesarea), which was seldom practiced save in the case of death in the crisis of labor, or, if attempted on the living, was either fatal, or at least destructive of the powers of maternity. An operation is also mentioned by the same authorities having for its object the extraction piecemeal of an otherwise inextricable foetus (ibid. p. 53, etc.).

Wunderbar enumerates from the Mishna and Talmud fifty-six surgical instruments or pieces of apparatus;: of these, however, the following only are at all alluded td in Scripture. A cutting instrument, called , supposed to be a sharp stone (Exo 4:25). Such was probably the ,Ethiopian stone mentioned by Herodotus (2, 86), and Pliny speaks of what he calls Testa samia, as a similar implement. Zipporah seems to have caught up the first instrument which came to hand in her apprehension for the life of her husband. The knife () of Jos 5:2 was probably a more refined instrument for the same purpose. An awl () is mentioned (Exo 21:6) as used to bore through the ear of the bondman who refused release. and is supposed to have been a surgical instrument. A seat of delivery; called in Scripture , Exo 1:16, by the Talmudists (comp. 2Ki 19:3), the stools; but some have doubted whether the word Used by Moses does not mean rather the uterus itself, as that which moulds and shapes the infant.

Delivery upon a seat or stool is, however, a common practice in France at this day, and also in Palestine. The’ roller to bind of Eze 30:21 was for a broken limb, as still used. Similar bands, wound with the most precise accuracy, involve the mummies. A scraper (), for which the potsherd of Job was a substitute (Job 2:8). Exo 30:23-25 is a prescription in form. It may be worth while also to enumerate the leading substances which, according to Wunderbar, composed the pharmacopeia of the Talmudists-a much more limited one which will afford some insight into the distance which separates them from the leaders of Greek medicine. Besides such ordinary appliances as water, wine (Luk 10:34), beer, vinegar, honey, and milk, various oils are found; as opobalsamim ( balm of Gilead), the oil of olive, myrrh, rose, palma christi, walnut, sesamum, colocynth, and fish; figs (2Ki 20:7), dates, apples (Son 2:5), pomegranates, pistachio-nuts, and almonds (a produce of Syria, but not of Egypt, Gen 43:11); wheat, barley, and various other grains; garlic, leeks, onions, and some other common herbs; mustard, pepper, coriander seed, ginger, preparations of beet, fish, etc., steeped in wine or vinegar, whey, eggs, salt, wax, and suet (in plasters), gall of fish (Tob 6:8; Tob 11:11), ashes, cow dung, etc.; fasting- saliva, urine, bat’s blood, and the following rarer herbs, etc.; ammesision, menta gentilis, saffron, mandragora, Lawsonia spinosa (Arab. alhenna), juniper, broom, poppy, acacia, pine, lavender or rosemary, cloverroot, jujub, hyssop, fern, sampsuchum, milk-thistle, laurel, Eruca muralis, absynth,jasmine, narcissus, madder, curled mint, fennel, endive, oil of cotton, myrtle, myrrh, aloes, sweet cane (acorus calamus), cinnamon, canella alba, cassia, ladanum, galbanum, frankincense, storax nard, gum of various trees, musk, blatta byzantina; and these minerals-bitumen, natrum, borax, alum, clay. aetites, quicksilver, litharge, yellow arsenic. The following preparations were also well known: Theriacas, an antidote prepared from serpents; various medicinal drinks, e.g. from the fruit- bearing rosemary; decoction of wine. with vegetables; mixture of wine, holiey, and pepper; of oil, wine, and water; of asparagus and other roots steeped in wine; emetics, purging draughts, soporifics, potions to produce abortion or fruitfulness; and various salves, some used cosmetically, e.g. to remove hair; some for wounds and other injuries. The forms of medicaments were cataplasm, electuary, liniment. plaster (Isa 1:6; Jer 8:22; Jer 46:11; Jer 51:8; Josephus, War, 1:33,5), powder, infusion, decoction, essence, syrup, mixture.

An occasional trace occurs of some chemical knowledge, e.g. the calcination of the gold by Moses; the effect of vinegar upon nitre (Exo 32:20; Pro 25:20; comp. Jer 2:22). The mention of the apothecary (Exo 30:35; Ecc 10:1), and of the merchant in powders (Son 3:6), shows that a distinct and important branch of trade was set up in these wares, in which, as at a modern druggist’s, articles of luxury, etc., are combined with the remedies of sickness (see further, Wunderbar, stes Heft, p. 73, ad fin.).

Among the most favorite of external remedies has always been the bath. As a preventive of numerous disorders its virtues were known to the Egyptians, and the scrupulous Levitical bathings prescribed by Moses would merely enjoin the continuance of a practice familiar to the Jews, from the example especially of the priests in that country. Besides the significance of moral purity which it carried, the use of the bath checked the tendency to become unclean by violent perspirations from within and effluvia from without; it kept the porous system in play, and stopped the outset of much disease. In order to make the sanction of health more solemn, most Oriental nations have enforced purificatory rites by religious mandates-and so the Jews. A treatise collecting all the dicta of ancient medicine on the use of the bath has been current ever since the revival of learning, under the title De Balneis. According to it, Hippocrates and Galen prescribe the bath medicinally in peripneumonia rather than in burning fever, as tending to allay the pain of the sides, chest, and back, promoting various secretions, removing lassitude, and suppling joints. A hot bath is recommended for those suffering from lichen (De Baln. p. 464). Those, on the contrary, who have looseness of the bowels, who are languid, loathe their food, are troubled with nausea or bile, should not use it, as neither should the epileptic. After exhausting journeys in the sun, the bath is commended as the restorative of moisture to the frame (p. 456- 458). The four objects which ancient authorities chiefly proposed to attain by bathing are

1, to warm and distil the elements of the body throughout the whole frame, to equalize whatever is abnormal, to rarefy the skin, and promote evacuations through it;

2, to reduce a dry to a moister habit;

3 (the cold bath), to cool the frame and brace it;

4 (the warm bath), a sudorific to expel cold. Exercise before bathing is recommended, and in the season from April till November inclusive it is the most conducive to health; if it be kept up in the other months, it should then be but once a week, and that fasting. Of natural waters some are nitrous, some saline, some aluminous, some sulphureous, some bituminous, some copperish, some ferruginous, and some compounded of these. Of ali the natural waters the power is, on the whole, desiccant and calefacient, and they are peculiarly fitted for those of a humid and cold habit. Pliny (H. N. xxxi) gives the fullest extant account of the thermal springs of the ancients (Paul. AEgin. ed. Sydenh. Soc. 1:71). Avicenna gives precepts for salt and other mineral baths; the former he recommends in case of scurvy an ditching, as rarefying the skin, and afterwards condensing it. Waters medicates with alum, natron, sulphur, naphtha, iron, litharge, vit ,riol, and vinegar, are also specified by him. Frictitr and unction are prescribed, and a caution given against staying too long in the water (ibid. p. 338-340; comp Aetius, De Baln. 4:484). A sick bather should lie quiet and allow others to rub and anoint him, and use no strigil (the common instrument for scraping the skin). but a sponge (p. 456).

Maimonides, chiefly following Galen, recommends the bath, especially for phthisis in the aged, as being a case of dryness with cold habit, and to a hectic-fever patient as being a case of dryness with hot habit; also in cases of ephemeral and tertian fevers, under certain restrictions, and in putrid fevers, with the caution not to incur shivering. Bathing is dangerous to those who feel pain in the liver after eating. He adds cautions regarding the kind of water, but these relate chiefly to water for drinking (De Baln. p. 438, 439). The bath of oil was formed, according to Galen and Aetius, by adding the fifth part of heated oil to a waterbath. Josephus speaks (War, 1:33, 5) as though oil had, in Herod’s case, been used pure. There were special occasions on which the bath was ceremonially enjoined after a leprous eruption healed, after the conjugal act, or an involuntary emission, or any gonorrhea discharge, after menstruation, childbed, or touching a corpse; so for the priests before and during their times of office such a duty was prescribed. The Pharisees and Essenes aimed at scrupulous strictness of all such rules :(Mat 15:2; Mar 7:5; Luk 11:38). Riverbathing was common, but houses soon began to include a bath-room (Lev 15:13;. 2Ki 5:10; 2Sa 11:2; Susanna 15). Vapor-baths, as among the Romans, were latterly included in these, as well as hot and. cold bath. apparatus, and the use of perfumes and oils after quitting it was everywhere diffused (Wunderbar, 2tes Heft, vol. ii, B). The vapor was sometimes sought to be inhaled, though this was reputed mischievous to the teethe It was deemed healthiest after a warm to take also a cold bath(Paul. AEgin. ed. Sydenh. Soc. 1:68). The Talmud has it- Whoso takes a warm bath, and does not also drink thereupon some warm water, is like a stove hot only from without, but not heated also from within. Whoso bathes, and does not withal anoint, is like the liquor outside a vat. Whoso having had a warm bath does not also immediately pour cold water over him, is like an iron made to glow in the fire, but not thereafter hardened inl the water. This succession of cold water to hot vapor is commonly practiced in Russian and Polish baths, and is said to contribute much to robust health (Wunderbar, ibid.). SEE BATHE.

V. Literature.-Besides the usual authorities on Hebrew antiquities, Talmudical and modern, Wunderbar 2stes Heft, p. 57-69) has compiled a collection of writers on the special subject of scriptural, etc., medicine, including its psychological and botanical aspects, as also its political relations; a distinct section of thirteen monographs treats of the leprosy; and every various disease mentioned in Scripture appears elaborated in one or more such short treatises. Those out of the whole number which appear most generally in esteem, to judge from references made to them, are the following, which include a few from other sources: Rosenmuller’s Natural History of the Bible (in the Biblical Cabinet, vol. xxvii); De Wette, Hebraisch-judische Archdologie, 271 b; Calmet (Augustin), La Mgdecine et les Medecins des anc. Hebreux (in his Comm. litrale, Paris, 1724, vol. v); idem, Dissertation sur la Sueur du Sang (Luk 22:43-44); Pruner, Krankheiten des Orients; Sprengel (Kurt), De medic. Ebrceorum (Halle, 1789, 8vo); idem, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Medicin (Halle, 1794, 8vo); idem, Versuch einer pragm. Geschichte der A rzeneikunde (Halle, 1792, 1803, 1821; the last edition by Dr. Rosenbaum, Leipsic; 1846, 8vo, vol. i, 37-45); idem, Histor. Rei Herbar. (lib. i, cap. i, Flora Biblica); Bartholini (Thom.), De morbis biblicis, miscellanea medica (in Ugolini, 30:1521); idem, Paralytici novi Testamenti (in Ugolini, 30:1459), Schmidt (Joh. Jac.), Biblischer Medicus (Ziillichau, 1743, 8vo, p. 761); Kall, De morbis sacerdot. V. T. (Hafn. 1745, 4to); Reinhard (Chr. Tob. Ephr.), Bibelkrankheit., welche imn alten Testam. vorkommen (i and 2:1767, 8vo, p. 384; v. 1768, 8vo, p. 244); Shapter (Thomas),:Medica sacra, or Short Expositions of the more important Diseases mentioned in the Sacred Writings (London, 1834) ; Wunderbar (R. J.), Biblisch- Talmudische Medicin (in 4 parts, Riga, 1850-1853, 8vo; new series, 1857); Celsius (01.), Hierobofanicon, s. deplantis sacrce scripturce dissertationes breves (2 parts, Upsal, 1745, 1747, 8vo; Amstelod. 1748); Bochart (Samuel), Hierozoicon, s. bipartitum, opus de animulibus sacrce scripturce (London, 1665, fol.; Frankfort, 1675, fol.; edited by, and with’the notes of Ern. F. G. Rosenmuller, Lips. 1793, 3 vols. 4to); Spencer, De legibus Hebroeorum ritualibus (Tiibingen, 1732, fol.); Reinhard (Mich. H.),-De cibis Hebrceorum prohibitis; Diss. I respon. Seb. Muller (Viteb. 1697, 4to); Diss. II respon. Chr. Liske (ibid. 1697, 4to); Eschenbach (Chr. Ehrenfr.), Progr. de lepra Judceorum (Rostock, 1774, 4to; in his Scripta medic. bibl p. 17-41); Schilling (G. G.), De lepra commentationes, rec. J. D. Hahn (Lugd. Bat. 1788, 8vo); Chamseru (R.), Recherches sur le veritable caractere de la lepre des Hebreux (in Mem. de la Soc. medic. d’emulation de Paris, 1810, 3:335); Relation Chirurgicale de l’A rmee de l’Orient (Paris, 1804); Wedel (GeoW.), De lepra in sacris (Jena, 1715, 4to; in his Exercitat. med. philolog. Cent. II, dec. 4, p. 93- 107); idem, De morb. Hiskie (Jena, 1692, 4to; in his Exercitat. med. philolog. Cent. I, dec. 7); idem, De morbo Jorazmi exercitat. I, II (Jena, 1717, 4to; in his Exercitat. med. philolog. Cent. II, dec. 5); idem, De Saulo energumeno (Jena, 1685; in his Exercitat. med. philolog. Cent. I, dec. 2); idem, De morbis senumn Solomonceis (Jena, 1686, 4to; in his Exercitat. med. philolog. Cent. I, dec. 3); Lichtenstein, Versuch, etc. (in Eichhorn’s Allgem. Bibliothek, 6:407-467); Mead (Dr. R.), Medica Sacra (London, 4to); Gudius (G. F.), Exercitatio philologica de Hebraica obstetricum origine (in Ugolini, 30:1061); Kall, De obstetricibus matsrum Hebrearum in AEgypto (Hamburg, 1746, 4to); Israels (Dr. AH.), Tentamene historico- medicum, exhibens collectanea Gyncecologica, quee ex Talmude Babylonico depromsit (Griningen, 1845, 8vo); Borner (F.), Dissert. de statu -Medicinoe ap. Vett. Hebr. (1735); Norberg, De Medicina Arabum (in Opusc. Acad. 2:404); Aschkenazei (Mos.), De ortu etprogressu Medicinee inter Hebrceos (Hamburg, 17., 8vo);’ Ginsburger (B. W.), De Aledica ex Talnudis illustrata (Gotting. 1743, 4to); Goldmann, De rebus medices Vet. Test. (Bresl. 1846, 4to); Leutenschliger (J. H.), De medicis veterum Hebr. (Schleiz. 1786, 8vo); Lindlinger (J. S.), De Hebr. vett. medica de Dcemoniacis (Wittenb. 1774, 2 vols. 8vo); Reineccius (Chr.), Dictum Talmudieum de optimo nedico, Gehenne digno (Weissenb. 1724, fol.). SEE PHYSICIAN.

Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Medicine

The physicians in Genesis 1 were Egyptian embalmers. Physic was often associated with superstition; this was Asa’s fault, “he sought not unto Jehovah but to the physicians” (2Ch 16:12). Luke “the beloved physician” practiced at Antioch, the center between the schools of Cilicia (Tarsus) and Alexandria. Ecclesiastes (Ecc 12:6) uses language which under the Spirit (whatever Solomon knew or did not know) expresses scientific truth: “the silver cord” is the spinal marrow, white and precious as silver, attached to the brain which is “the golden bowl.” The “fountain” may mean the right ventricle of the heart, the “cistern” the left, the “pitcher” the veins, the “wheel” the aorta or great artery. The “wheel”‘ however may mean life in its rapid motion, as Jam 3:6, “the wheel of nature.” The circulation of the blood is apparently expressed.

The washing’s, the restriction in diet to clean animals and the prohibition of pork, the separation of lepers, the laws of marriage and married intercourse (Leviticus 15), the cleanliness of the camp (Deu 23:12-14), and the comprehension of all varieties of healthful climate in Palestine, account for Israel’s general exemption from epidemics and remarkable healthiness. The healing art in the Old Testament seems mainly to consist in external applications for wounds, etc. balm abounded in Gilead, and therefore many physicians settled there. Jer 8:22, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health (lengthening out) of the daughter of my people gone up (Hebrew)?” i.e., why is not the long bandage applied? or why is not the health come up again, as skin coming up over a wound in healing? (See BALM.)

Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary

Medicine

MEDICINE.Palestine was probably a comparatively healthy country in Bible times, as it is now. Its natural features in most localities would protect it from the usual endemic diseases of Oriental lands, and its want of harbours would to a great extent prevent the importation of epidemics (contrast the reputation of Egypt, as attested by Deu 7:15; Deu 28:50, Amo 4:10); moreover, the legislation of the Priestly Code, if it was ever observed, would have operated to prevent the spread of disease, and the existence of far-reaching destitution. These provisions, and the common occurrence of external and internal warfare, must also have tended to eliminate overcrowding as a cause of disease; but the ratio of population to area in ancient times is very difficult to estimate; the figures in 1Ch 21:5 and 2Sa 4:9 are clearly untrustworthy.

1. Jews believed in a definite connexion between health and virtue (cf. Isa 58:8, Jer 8:15; Jer 8:22). Disease was popularly regarded as penal (Joh 9:2), and as sent by God either directly (Exo 4:11, Deu 32:39) or permissively by means of others (Job 2:7, Mar 9:17; Mar 9:25). It might also be caused by human envy (Job 5:2), or by bodily excess (Sir 37:30-31), but even so its vera causa was Gods direct authorization.

Under these circumstances healing was treated as a token of Divine forgiveness (Exo 15:26). And the connexion of priest with physician was correspondingly close. On the whole, the medical knowledge of the Bible peoples was very defective; nor are there any traces of medical education in Palestine. Jacob was embalmed by Egyptian physicians (Gen 50:2), but there must probably have been some Jewish practitioners at the time when Exo 21:19 was compiled. The word in Jer 8:22 means a bandager. The writer of 2Ch 16:12 seems to take the extreme view that it was a sin to consult physicians, but saner ideas are represented in Sir 38:2. Still, it may be doubted whether medical duties were not usually performed by priests (as in early Egypt), at any rate in the earlier OT times; certainly the priests had the supervision in the case of certain diseases, e.g. leprosy; and prophets also were applied to for medical advice (cf. 1Ki 14:2; 1Ki 17:18, 2Ki 4:22; 2Ki 20:7). And even in Sir 38:14 the physician is regarded as having certain priestly duties, and the connexion between religion and medicine is seen in the counsel, given in that same chapter, that repentance and an offering shall precede the visit of the physician. In the NT we have St. Luke described as a physician (Col 4:14), and a somewhat depreciatory remark on physicians in Mat 5:26, which, however, is much toned down in Luk 8:43.

It is therefore probable that up till late times medicine was in the charge of the priests, whose knowledge must have been largely traditional and empirical. The sacrificial ritual would give them some knowledge of animal morphology, but human anatomy can scarcely have existed as a science at all, since up to about a.d. 100 the ceremonial objections to touching or dissecting the dead prevailed. Thus Bible references to facts of anatomy and physiology are very few in number. Blood was tabooed as food (Gen 9:4, Lev 17:11)a highly important sanitary precaution, considering the facility with which blood carries microbes and parasites. A rudimentary embryology can be traced in Job 10:10, Psa 139:15-16 (cf. Ecc 11:5). But most of the physiological theories adverted to in the Bible are expressed in language of poetry and metaphor. On the whole, however, we may infer that the Jews (like other ancient peoples) regarded the heart as the seat of mental and moral activity (exceptions to this view are Dan 2:28; Dan 4:5; Dan 7:1), the reins or kidneys as the seats of impulse, affection, conscience (Jer 11:20; Jer 12:2, Psa 7:9), the bowels as the organs of sympathy (Psa 40:8, Job 30:27). Proverbs about physicians seem to be alluded to in Mat 9:12, Luk 4:23, Sir 38:1. Except in the case of certain diseases, visitation of the sick is enjoined in the Talmud (though not in the OT), and enforced by Christ in Mat 25:36.

2. General terms for disease.The words sick, sickness, sicknesses, disease, diseased, diseases, are of the most frequent occurrence, though they are not always used as the tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of the same words in the original. Sometimes the term is qualified, e.g. sickness unto death (Isa 38:1), sore sickness (1Ki 17:17), evil disease (Psa 41:8), incurable disease (2Ch 21:18). We also have infirmity three times in the OT, in Lev 12:2 meaning periodic sickness, in Psa 77:10 as weakness from sickness, in Pro 18:14 as weakness generally. The term plague is sometimes used of a specific epidemic, at other times of sickness in general. There are also various figurative expressions for disease, and in some places it is described as inflicted by the angel of God, e.g. 2Sa 24:16. In the NT, again, various Gr. words are translated by sickness, disease, infirmity; the allusion in 1Co 11:30 may be to mental weakness, and in Rom 15:1 to weakness of conscience.

Some diseases, e.g. leprosy, were regarded as unclean, and those suffering from them were excluded from cities. But in general the sick were treated at home. As to the treatment we know very little. It is possible that in earlier times bleeding was not resorted to because of the taboo on blood, though in later times the Jews followed the universal practice. Pro 30:15 has been supposed to show a knowledge of the medicinal use of leeches; but this inference can by no means be drawn with any certainty from the context.

3. Specific diseases.As a rule the Bible references to specific diseases are general and vague; and even where we find concrete mention of particular ailments, it is not always easy to decide what the exact nature of the maladies was. In some cases the symptoms are given, though sometimes very indefinitely.

In Deu 28:22 a group of terms is used for diseases which appear to resemble each other in the fact that they are sudden, severe, epidemic, and fatal. The first is called consumption. This may be phthisis, but more probable it means a kind of wasting fever, characterized by weakness and anmia, often of long duration, and perhaps not unlike Mediterranean or Malta fever. The same word is used in Lev 26:16. The consumption mentioned in Isa 10:22; Isa 28:22 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] does not appear to be a specific disease at all. This is followed in Deut. by fever; the same word in Lev 26:16 is rendered burning ague by the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , and the LXX [Note: Septuagint.] translates it by the Greek word for jaundice. Its symptoms are given in the passage of Lv.; it may be a sort of malarial fever which occurs in certain parts of Palestine, and is occasionally accompanied by jaundice. This may be the disease alluded to in Joh 4:26 and Luk 4:38, both instances at Capernaum. Then comes inflammation (Deu 28:22 EV [Note: English Version.] , LXX [Note: Septuagint.] ague). This may be ague, or even typhoid, which is common in Palestine. Next we have extreme burning (Deu 28:22 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , RV [Note: Revised Version.] fiery heat, LXX [Note: Septuagint.] irritation); either some unspecified kind of irritating disease, or erysipelas; but this latter disease is not of frequent occurrence in Palestine. The sword (Deu 28:22 AV [Note: Authorized Version.] , RV [Note: Revised Version.] drought) may be a form of disease, or more probably, like the next two words, may refer to a destruction of the earths fruits. The same word sword in Zec 11:17 seems, from the symptoms described, to refer to a wasting paralysis. The descriptions given in Psa 39:11, Zec 14:12, Lev 26:39, Eze 24:23; Eze 33:10, Psa 38:5 are largely figurative; but the imagery may be taken from an attack of confluent smallpox, with its disfiguring and repulsive effects. It seems highly probable that smallpox was a disease of antiquity; perhaps the sixth plague of Egypt was of this character.

Allusions to pestilence or plague are exceedingly common in the OT. Thus at least four outbreaks took place among the Israelites during their wanderings in the wilderness, viz. Num 11:33 (it has been suggested that the quails here mentioned may have come from a plague-stricken district) Num 14:37; Num 16:46; Num 25:9 (in this last case it may have been communicated by the Moabites). For other references to plague, cf. 2Sa 24:15, 2Ch 21:14, Psa 91:3; Psa 91:6, Jer 21:9; Jer 42:17, perhaps 2Ki 19:35. The bubonic plague was the periodic scourge of Bible lands. It has but a short period of incubation, spreads rapidly and generally, and is very fatal, death ensuing in a large proportion of cases, and nearly always within three days. No precautions against it are prescribed in the Levitical Code, because it was regarded as a special visitation of God. As the plague is not endemic in Palestine, the Jews probably incurred it by mixing with their neighbours. The emerods of 1Sa 5:6 were tumours of a definite shape, and may therefore be the buboes of the plague. The tumours appeared somewhere in the lower part of the abdomen. Some have supposed them to be hmorrhoids, by comparison with the phrase in Psa 78:66, but this is doubtful. The same word occurs in Deu 28:27.

Of diseases in the digestive organs the case in 2Ch 21:19 is one of chronic dysentery in its worst form. That in Act 28:8 (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] bloody flux) is also dysentery, which is very prevalent in Malta. The mention of hmorrhage in this case shows that it was of the ulcerative or gangrenous type, which is very dangerous.

The results of intemperance are mentioned in Pro 23:29 ff., Isa 19:14.

The liver. The Hebrew physicians regarded many disorders as due to an alteration in the bile (cf. Job 16:15, Pro 7:23, Lam 2:11). The disorders alluded to in 1Ti 5:23 were probably some kind of dyspepsia, apparently producing lack of energy (cf. 1Ti 4:13-16); the symptoms are often temporarily relieved by the use of alcohol. In Psa 69:3 allusion is made to the dryness of throat produced by mental emotions of a lowering character; and in Isa 16:11, Jer 4:10 to the flatulent distension of the colon due to the same cause.

Heart. There are few references to physical diseases affecting it. Pro 14:30 may be one. Cases of syncope seem to be recorded in Gen 45:26, 1Sa 4:18; 1Sa 28:20, Dan 8:27. The allusions to a broken heart in Scripture are always metaphorical, but the theory that our Lords death was due to rupture of the heart deserves mention.

Paralysis or palsy. This is a disease of the central nervous system, which comes on rapidly as a rule, and disappears slowly, if at all. Such cases are mentioned in the NT, e.g. Mat 4:24, Luk 4:18, perhaps Act 9:33. The case in Mat 8:6 may have been one of acute spinal meningitis, or some other form of especially painful paralysis. In the case of the withered hand of Mat 12:10, Mar 3:1, Luk 6:8 a complete atrophy of the bones and muscles was probably the cause. The case in Act 3:2 was possibly of the same nature. Such cases are probably intended also in Joh 5:3. The man in Joh 5:7 can hardly have been suffering from locomotor ataxia, as he could move himself, and his disease had lasted 38 years. Therefore this also was, in all likelihood, a case of withered limbs. The sudden attack mentioned in 1Ki 13:4 was probably due to sudden hmorrhage affecting some part of the brain, which may under certain circumstances be only temporary.

Apoplexy. A typical seizure is described in 1Sa 25:37, due to hmorrhage in the brain produced by excitement, supervening, in this particular instance, on a drinking bout (cf. also 1Ma 9:55). The same sort of seizure may be referred to in 2Sa 6:7, Act 5:6-10.

Trance is mentioned in Gen 2:21; Gen 15:12. But the cases in 1Sa 26:12, Jdg 4:21, Mat 8:24 were probably of sleep due to fatigue. Prophetic frenzy is alluded to in Num 24:3-4, 2Ki 9:11 (cf. Isa 8:18). Saul is an interesting psychical study: a man of weak judgment, violent passions, and great susceptibility, eventually succumbing to what seem to be recurring paroxysms of mania, rather than a chronic melancholia. A not uncommon type of monomania seems to be described in Dan 4:1-37 (the lycanthropy of Nebuchadnezzar). In the NT various nervous affections are probably included among the instances of demoniac possession, e.g. Luk 11:14, Mat 12:22. In Luk 1:22, Act 9:7 are apparently mentioned cases of temporary aphasia due to sudden emotion. (Cf. also Dan 10:15.)

Deafness and dumbness. Many of the NT cases of possession by dumb spirits were probably due to some kind of insanity or nervous disease, e.g. Mat 9:32, Mar 9:25. In Mar 7:32 stammering is joined to deafness. Isa 28:11; Isa 32:4 (cf. Isa 33:19) probably refer to unintelligible rather than defective speech. Moses slowness of speech and tongue (cf. Exo 4:10) was probably only lack of oratorical fluency. Patience with the deaf is recommended in Lev 19:14.

Epilepsy. The case in Mat 17:15, Mar 9:18, Luk 9:38 is of genuine epileptic fits; the usual symptoms are graphically described. Like many epileptics, the patient had been subject to the fits from childhood. The pining away mentioned in the Markan account is characteristic of a form of the disease in which the fits recur frequently and cause progressive exhaustion. The word used in Mt. to describe the attack means literally to be moon-struck; the same word is found in Mat 4:24, and an allusion to moon-stroke occurs in Psa 121:6. It was a very general belief that epilepsy was in some way connected with the phases of the moon. Such a theory is put forward by Vicary, the physician of Henry VIII., at so late a date as 1577.

Sunstroke. This is mentioned in Psa 121:6, Isa 49:10, and cases of apparently genuine siriasis are described in 2Ki 4:10 and Jdt 8:2. This seizure is very rapid and painful, accompanied by a great rise in temperature, passing speedily into coma, and resulting as a rule in death within a very short space of time. The cure effected in 2Ki 4:1-44 was plainly miraculous. Heat syncope, rather than sunstroke, seems to have been the seizure in Jonahs case (Jon 4:8). He fainted from the heat, and on recovery was conscious of a severe headache and a feeling of intense prostration.

Dropsy is common in Jerusalem. The cure of a case of dropsy is recorded in Luk 14:2.

Pulmonary disease as such finds no mention in Scripture. The phrase used in 1Ki 17:17, there was no breath left in him, is merely the ordinary way of stating that he died.

Gout. This disease is very uncommon among the people of Palestine; and it is not, as a rule, fatal. The disease in his feet from which Asa suffered (1Ki 15:23, 2Ch 16:12) has usually been supposed to be gout, though one authority suggests that it was articular leprosy, and another that it was senile gangrene. The passages quoted give us no clue to the nature of the disease in question, nor do they state that it caused his death. Josephus describes Asa as dying happily in a good old age. The OT records remark only that he suffered from a disease in the feet, which began when he was advanced in years.

Under the heading surgical diseases may be classed the spirit of infirmity, affecting the woman mentioned in Luk 13:11; Luk 13:13, who, though she could attend the synagogue meetings, was bowed together and unable to lift herself. This was probably a case of senile kyphosis, such as not infrequently occurs with aged women, and sometimes with men, who have spent their lives in agricultural or horticultural labour, which necessitates constant curvature of the body.

Crook-backedness (Lev 21:20) disqualified a man for the priesthood. This disease is one which can occur in youth, and is due to caries of the vertebr. The collections of bones found in Egypt justify the inference that such curvatures must have been fairly common in Egypt.

Fracture of the skull. A case is recorded in Jdg 9:53, where insensibility did not immediately supervene, showing the absence of compression of the brain. In Act 20:9 fatal compression and probably a broken neck were caused by the accident. The fall in 2Ki 1:2 was the cause of Ahaziahs ultimate death.

Lameness. Mephibosheths lameness was due to an accident in infancy (2Sa 4:4), which apparently produced some sort of bone disease, necessitating constant dressing, unless the phrase in 2Sa 19:24 refers merely to washing. Lameness was a disqualification for the priesthood (Lev 21:18); Christ healed many lame people in the Temple (Mat 21:14) as well as elsewhere. Jacobs lameness (Gen 32:31) may also be mentioned.

Congenital malformations. Cf. 2Sa 21:20, 1Ch 20:6. The possession of superfluous parts was held to disqualify a man for the priesthood (Lev 21:18), as did also dwarfishness (Lev 21:20), unless the reference there is to emaciation from disease. The word in Lev 21:18, which is translated that hath a flat nose, may refer to the deformity of a hare-lip.

Skin diseases are of common occurrence in the East. The most important of them was leprosy (wh. see). But there are many minor diseases of the skin recognized in Bible enactments under various terms.

Baldness (Lev 13:40-43) was not looked upon as causing ceremonial uncleanness, nor apparently was it common; it seems to have been regarded not as a sign of old age, but as the result of a life spent in excessive labour with exposure to the sun (cf. Eze 29:18), and so in Isa 3:24 it is threatened as a mark of degradation and servitude.

Itch (Deu 28:27) is probably the parasitic disease due to a small mite which burrows under the skin, and, if neglected, sometimes spreads all over the body; this disease is very easily communicated, and is not uncommon in Syria at the present time. It was a disqualification for the priesthood (Lev 21:20).

Scab (Deu 28:27) or scurvy (Lev 21:20) is a kindred disease in which a crust forms on the skin; it is most common on the head, but sometimes spreads all over the body, and is most difficult to cure. Scab in Lev 21:20 is the tr. [Note: translate or translation.] of a different word, but is probably another form of the same disease (cf. Isa 3:17).

Scall or scurf of the head and beard (Lev 13:30) is another parasitic disease of similar nature.

Freckled spot (Lev 13:39, RV [Note: Revised Version.] tetter) may be psoriasis, a non-contagions eruption.

The botch of Egypt (Deu 28:27; Deu 28:35). The same word is used in Job 2:7, Exo 9:9, 2Ki 20:7, Isa 38:21. It is probably a general term for a swelling of the skin. In Exo 9:10 blains, perhaps pustules containing fluid, are stated to have accompanied the boils. The disease in Deu 28:35 affected especially the knees and legs. Jobs disease appears to have been one of itching sores or spots all over the body, which disfigured his face (Job 2:11), caused great pain and a feeling of burning (Job 6:4), made his breath fetid (Job 19:17), and were infested with maggots (Job 7:5). Various names for the exact nature of the disease have been suggested, such as elephantiasis, leprosy, smallpox, etc. Some authorities, however, suppose the symptoms to agree better with those or the Biskra button or Oriental sore, sometimes called Aleppo sore or Baghdad sore, which begins with papular spots, which ulcerate, become crusted over, are slow in granulation, and often multiple. This complaint is probably due to a parasite. Lazarus sores (Luk 16:20) were probably old varicose ulcers of the leg.

Spot (Deu 32:5, Job 11:15, Son 4:7) and blemish (Lev 21:17, Dan 1:4) seem to be general terms for skin disease. Wen (Lev 22:22) means a suppurating sore.

The bloody sweat of our Lord (Luk 22:44) is difficult to explain. Some regard the passage as meaning merely that His sweat dropped, as blood drops from a wound. Instances of bloody sweat have been quoted in comparison, but it seems that none is satisfactorily authenticated.

Poisonous serpents are mentioned in Num 21:6 (where they are miraculously cured by the erection of a brass model of a serpent), Deu 32:33, Job 20:14-15, Isa 11:8; Isa 14:29; Isa 30:8; Isa 59:5, Jer 8:17, Mat 3:7 (metaphorically, as also in Mat 12:34; Mat 23:33, Luk 3:7), Mar 16:18, Luk 10:19, Act 28:3. There are several poisonous serpents in the desert of the Exodus narrative, whose bites are often fatal; but it has been suggested that the fiery serpents of Num 21:6 were really the parasitic worms called guinea-worms, which are not uncommon in the desert region. Scorpion bites are common and often fatal to children in Egypt, but not in Palestine.

Worms (Act 12:23) is the description of the disease of which Herod died. One authority suggests that it was acute peritonitis set up by the perforation of the bowel by an intestinal worm. Josephus states that Herod suffered from a violent abdominal pain which in a few days proved fatal. Thus it cannot have been a case of phthiriasis. The death of Antiochus Epiphanes (2Ma 9:5-9) is described as preceded by a violent pain of the bowels; then he was injured by a violent fall, and worms rose up out of his bodyin all probability a case of compound fractures, in which blow-flies laid their eggs and maggots hatched, owing to neglect of the injuries.

The third plague of Egypt (Exo 8:16) is called one of lice, but the margin of the RV [Note: Revised Version.] suggests sand-flies or fleas. It is possible that they were mosquitoes or sand fleas, the latter of which generate in the dust.

Discharges or issues of a certain nature caused ceremonial impurity; cf. Lev 15:2-25. Some of these were natural (Deu 23:10), others probably were the result of impure practices, but it is doubtful how much the ancients knew of the physical consequences of vice. Cf., however, Psa 107:17-18, Pro 2:18; Pro 5:11-22; Pro 7:23; Pro 7:26.

Blindness is exceedingly common among the natives of Palestine; the words describing this affliction are of frequent occurrence in the Bible, sometimes in the literal, sometimes in the metaphorical, sense. Apparently only two forms of blindness were recognized: (1) that which arose from the ophthalmia so prevalent in Oriental lands, a highly infectious disease, aggravated by sand, sun-glare, and dirt, which damages the organs, and often renders them quite useless; (2) that due to old age, as in the case of Eli (1Sa 3:2), Ahijah (1Ki 14:4), Isaac (Gen 27:1). Cf. also Deu 34:7. Blindness was believed to be a visitation from God (Exo 4:11), it disqualified a man for the priesthood (Lev 21:18); but compassion for the blind was prescribed (Lev 19:14), and offences against them were accursed (Deu 27:18). Leah probably suffered from a minor form of ophthalmia (Gen 29:17). In Lev 26:16 we see ophthalmia accompanying malarial fever. The blinding of Elymas in Act 13:11 may have been hypnotic, as also possibly the blinding of the Syrian soldiers in 2Ki 6:18.

The cases of blindness which were cured by our Lord are usually given without special characterization; the two of most interest are that of the man born blind (Joh 9:1), and that of the man whose recovery was gradual (Mar 8:22). In the latter case we do not know whether the man was blind from birth or not; if he was, the stage in which he saw men as trees walking would be that in which he had not yet accustomed himself to interpret and understand visual appearances. Our Lords cures as described were all miraculous, in the sense that the influence of a unique personality must be postulated in order to explain the cure; but He used various methods to effect or symbolize the cure in various cases.

St. Pauls blindness (Act 9:8) was probably a temporary amaurosis, such as may be caused by looking at the sun. The scales (Act 9:18) need not necessarily have been material; the words suggest a mere simile. One of the theories as to his thorn in the flesh is that it was a permanent weakness of eye remaining after his experience (cf. Gal 4:15). But other explanations have been suggested. The blindness of Tobit and its cure may also be mentioned (Tob 2:10; Tob 11:11); the remedy there adopted has a parallel in Pliny (HN xxxii. 24). Eye-salve is recommended in Rev 3:18, but the context is metaphorical.

Old age. Under this heading should be mentioned the famous passage in Ecc 12:1-14, where the failure of powers consequent on growing years is described in language of poetic imagery.

Child-birth. The special cases of child-bearing which are mentioned in the Bible are mostly quoted to illustrate the sorrow of conception, which was regarded as the penalty of Eves transgression (Gen 3:16). There are two cases of twins, that of Esau and Jacob (Gen 25:22), and that of Perez and Zerah (Gen 38:29 ff.). The latter was a case of spontaneous evolution with perineal laceration, probably fatal to the mother. Rachels case (Gen 35:18) was one of fatal dystocia, and the phrase in Gen 31:35 may hint at some long-standing delicacy. Phinehas wife (1Sa 4:19) was taken in premature labour, caused by shock, and proving fatal. Sarah (Gen 21:2), Manoahs wife (Jdg 13:24), Hannah (1Sa 1:20), the Shunammite woman (2Ki 4:17), and Elisabeth (Luk 1:67) are instances of unipar at a late period. Barrenness was regarded as a Divine judgment (Gen 20:18; Gen 30:2), and the forked root of the mandrake was used as a charm against it (Gen 30:10); fertility was correspondingly regarded as a proof of Divine favour (1Sa 2:5, Psa 113:9), and miscarriage is invoked as a token of Gods displeasure in Hos 9:14. The attendants at birth were women (Gen 35:17, Exo 1:15, midwives). The mother was placed in a kneeling posture, leaning on somebodys knees (Gen 30:3), or on a labour-stool, if such be the meaning of the difficult passage in Exo 1:10. After child-birth the mother was unclean for 7 days in the case of a male, for 14 days in the case of a female, child. After this she continued in a state of modified uncleanness for 33 or 66 days, according as the child was boy or girl, during which period she was not allowed to enter the Temple. The reason for the different lengths of the two periods was that the lochia was supposed to last longer in the case of a female child. Nursing continued for 2 or 3 years (2Ma 7:27), and in 1Ki 11:20 a child is taken by a relative to wean.

The legislation for the menstrual period and for menorrhagia is given in Lev 15:19 ff. A rigid purification was prescribed, including everything which the woman had touched, and everybody who touched her or any of those things (see Clean and Unclean). Menorrhagia (EV [Note: English Version.] issue of blood) was considered peculiarly impossible of treatment (Mat 9:20, Mar 5:26, Luk 8:43), and magical means were resorted to for its cure. In Eze 16:4 Is a description of an infant with undivided umbilical cord, neither washed nor dressed. The skin of Infants was usually dressed with salt to make it firm. The metaphorical use of terms derived from child-labour is exceedingly common in the Bible.

Infantile diseases seem to have been very severe in Palestine in Bible times, as at the present day. We hear of sick children in 2Sa 12:15, 1Ki 17:17, and Christ healed many children.

Among cases of unspecified diseases may be mentioned those of Abijah (1Ki 14:1), Benhadad (2Ki 8:7), Elisha (2Ki 13:14), Joash (2Ch 24:25), Lazarus (Joh 11:1), Dorcas (Act 9:37), Epaphroditus (Php 2:27), Trophimus (2Ti 4:20).

4. Methods of treatment.The Bible gives us very few references on this point. We hear of washing (2Ki 5:10); diet perhaps (Luk 8:55); the application of saliva (Joh 9:6); unction (Jam 5:14); the binding of wounds and the application of soothing ointment (Isa 1:5); the use of oil and wine for wounds (Luk 10:34); a plaster of figs for a boil (Isa 38:21); animal heat by contact (1Ki 1:2; 1Ki 17:21, 2Ki 4:34).

Balm of Gilead or balm is mentioned in Gen 37:25; Gen 43:11, Jer 8:22; Jer 46:11; Jer 51:8, Eze 27:17. It appears to be regarded as a sedative application, and was probably an aromatic gum or spice (see art. Balm).

Mandrakes (Mandragora officinalis) were used as a stimulant to conception (Gen 30:16), and the fruit as a medicine. Mint (Mentha silvestris), anise (Anethum graveolens), cummin (Cuminum sativum) were used as carminatives; salt for hardening the skin, nitre (Jer 2:22) to cleanse it. The caper-berry (Capparis spinosa) is mentioned in Ecc 12:5; it was regarded as an aphrodisiac. The wine offered to Christ at His crucifixion was probably intended as a narcotic (Mat 27:34; Mat 27:48, Mar 15:23; Mar 15:36, Luk 23:3 b, Joh 19:29). Most of the remedies were dietary in the Jewish as in the Egyptian pharmacopia, e.g. meal, milk, vinegar, wine, water, almonds, figs, raisins, pomegranates, honey, etc.

We have a mention of amulets in Isa 3:20 and perhaps Gen 35:4. The apothecarys art is mentioned in Exo 30:25-35; Exo 37:29, Ecc 10:1, 2Ch 16:14, Neh 3:8, Sir 38:8; Sir 49:1. But in all these passages the reference is to makers of perfumes rather than compounders of medicines. It is probable that medicines were compounded by those who prescribed them.

Hygienic enactments dealing with food, sanitation, and infectious diseases are common in the Levitical Code. With regard to food, herbivorous ruminant animals were permitted to be eaten; all true fishes also were allowed; but birds which lived on animal food were forbidden, and all invertebrates except locusts. The fat and the blood of animals were prohibited as food, and regulations were given for the inspection of animals slaughtered for eating. The origin, however, of many of these regulations probably lies in primitive taboo laws (see Clean and Unclean). Fruits could not be used for food until the tree had been planted for four years (Lev 19:23-25). The provisions repeated in Exo 12:19; Exo 13:7, Deu 16:3 for the periodic destruction of leaven, whatever their historical origin, must have been of service for the maintenance of pure bread-stuffs.

The agricultural sanitary laws are directed chiefly to prohibit the mixing of different species, e.g. the sowing of different seeds in a field at the same time, the cross-grafting of fruit-trees, the cross-breeding or yoking together of dissimilar cattle. And periodic rest for man and beast was prescribed. No mixture of linen and woollen materials in garments was permitted (Lev 19:19, Deu 22:11), as such garments cannot be so easily or thoroughly cleansed as those of one material. There were also various regulations as to domestic sanitation; thus the covering with earth of excreta and of blood was ordered; possibly the fires of the Valley of Hinnom were intended to consume the offal of the city. Houses were to be built with parapets to prevent accident (Deu 22:8). Isolation in suspected cases of Infectious disease was prescribed (Lev 13:4), and the washing of body and clothes (Num 19:11) was obligatory on those who had touched unclean things.

Uncleanness was in many cases merely ceremonial in nature. But the regulations must often have served to diminish the chances of propagating real infection. Various grades of uncleanness are recognized in the Talmud, and different periods of lustration and isolation were ordained, in accordance with the different grade of uncleanness contracted.

5. Surgical instruments. A flint knife was used for circumcision (Jos 5:8), but in later times steel knives were employed. An awl for boring the ear is mentioned in Exo 21:8.

The most important surgical operation was the performance of circumcision. Its original idea may have been that of imposing a tribal mark on the infant (unless it was at first performed in early manhood and subsequently transferred to the time of infancy); but it came to be regarded as an operation of purification. The exclusion of eunuchs from the service of God (Deu 23:1) may have been due to the dread of importing heathen rites into Israel. But they were important officials in the time of the kingdom, as in Oriental courts generally (1Ki 22:9, 2Ki 8:6; 2Ki 9:32; 2Ki 24:16, Jer 29:2; Jer 34:19; Jer 38:7; Jer 41:16), and there were eunucbs at the court of the Herods, as elsewhere (cf. Act 8:27). The passage in Isa 56:4 implies that eunuchs were then under no special religious disability; cf. also our Lords reference in Mat 19:12.

Of course we must admit that in many cases the use of remedies, the sanitary laws, the prescriptions as to food, the regulations as to uncleanness, and so forth, did not necessarily originate in any theory as to their value for the preservation of public health. Primitive taboo customs, folk-lore, magic, superstition, are no doubt responsible for the existence of much that has been here placed under the heading of medicine. And it is quite likely, too, that up to a late period the popular Jewish view of the majority of these rules and customs was enlightened by no very clear conception of their hygienic value. The more educated minds of the nation may possibly in time have come to see that enactments which had originated in crude or mistaken notions of religion might yet be preserved, and valued as important precautions for the prevention of disease and its cure. But it may be doubted whether, even in late times, the vulgar opinion about them was at all scientific. At the same time, it is necessary to recognize that many of the laws, begotten, perhaps, of primitive superstition, did nevertheless serve a medical purpose, and so may without untruthfulness be included in a treatment of Bible medicine.

A. W. F. Blunt.

Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible

Medicine

medi-sin, medi-s’n (, gehah, , teruphah, , rephu’ah): These words are used in the sense of a remedy or remedies for disease. In Pro 17:22 the King James Version, a merry heart is said to do good like a medicine. There is an alternative reading in the King James Version margin, to a medicine, the Revised Version (British and American) is a good medicine; the Revised Version margin gives another rendering, causeth good healing, which is the form that occurs in the Septuagint and which was adopted by Kimchi and others. Some of the Targums, substituting a waw for the first h in gehah, read here doeth good to the body, thus making this clause antithetic to the latter half of the verse. In any case the meaning is that a cheerful disposition is a powerful remedial agent.

In the figurative account of the evil case of Judah and Israel because of their backsliding (Jer 30:13), the prophet says they have had no rephu’ah, or healing medicines. Later on (Jer 46:11), when pronouncing the futility of the contest of Neco against Nebuchadrezzar, Jeremiah compares Egypt to an incurably sick woman going up to Gilead to take balm as a medicine, without any benefit. In Ezekiel’s vision of the trees of life, the leaves are said (the King James Version) to be for medicine, the Revised Version (British and American) reads healing, thereby assimilating the language to that in Rev 22:2, leaves of the tree … for the healing of the nations (compare Eze 47:12).

Very few specific remedies are mentioned in the Bible. Balm of Gilead is said to be an anodyne (Jer 8:22; compare Jer 51:8). The love-fruits, mandrakes (Gen 30:14) and caperberry (Ecc 12:5 margin), myrrh, anise, rue, cummin, the oil and wine of the Good Samaritan, soap and sodic carbonate (natron, called by mistake nitre) as cleansers, and Hezekiah’s fig poultice nearly exhaust the catalogue. In the Apocrypha we have the heart, liver and gall of Tobit’s fish (Tobit 6:7). In the Egyptian pharmacopoeia are the names of many plants which cannot be identified, but most of the remedies used by them were dietetic, such as honey, milk, meal, oil, vinegar, wine. The Babylonian medicines, as far as they can be identified, are similar. In the Mishna we have references to wormwood, poppy, hemlock, aconite and other drugs. The apothecary mentioned in the King James Version (Exo 30:25, etc.) was a maker of perfumes, not of medicines. Among the fellahn many common plants are used as folk-remedies, but they put most confidence in amulets or charms, which are worn by most Palestinian peasants to ward off or to heal diseases.

Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Medicine

On the banks of the future river that will flow from the sanctuary, trees will grow, of which it is said, “The fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.” Eze 47:12. This agrees with Rev 22:2. The prophet Jeremiah twice observes that when God brings His judgements upon a people, no medicine will cure them. Jer 30:13; Jer 46:11. Pro 17:22 says, “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine,” or ‘promoteth healing.’

Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary

Medicine

General references

Pro 17:22; Isa 1:6; Isa 38:21; Jer 8:22; Jer 30:13; Jer 46:11; Jer 51:8-9; Eze 47:12; Luk 10:34; Rev 22:2 Disease; Physician

Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

Medicine

Medicine. Egypt was the earliest home of medical and other skilld for the region of the Mediterranean basin, and every Egyptian mummy, of the more expensive and elaborate sort, involved a process of anatomy. Still we have no trace of any philosophical or rational system of Egyptian origin; still medicine in Egypt was a mere art or profession. Compared with the wild countries around them, however, the Egyptians must have seemed incalculably advanced. Representations of early Egyptian surgery apparently occur on some of the monuments of Beni-Hassan. Those who have assisted at the opening of a mummy have noticed that the teeth exhibited a dentistry, not inferior in execution to the work of the best modern experts. This confirms the statement of Herodotus that every part of the body was studied by a distinct practitioner.

The reputation of Egypt’s practitioners, in historical times, was such that both Cyrus and Darius sent to that country for physicians or surgeons. Of midwifery, we have a distinct notice, Exo 1:1, and of women as its Practitioners, which fact may also be verified from the scriptures. The scrupulous attention paid to the dead was favorable to the health of the living. The practice of physic was not among the Jews, a privilege of the priesthood. Any one might practice it, and this publicity must have kept it pure. Rank and honor are said to be the portion of the physician, and his office to be from the Lord. Sir 38:1; Sir 38:3; Sir 38:12.

To bring down the subject to the period of the New Testament, St. Luke, “the beloved physician,” who practiced at Antioch, whilst the body was his care, could hardly have failed to be convenient, with all the leading opinions current down to his own time. Among special diseases named in the Old Testament is ophthalmia, Gen 29:17, which is perhaps, more common in Syria and Egypt, than anywhere else in the world; especially in the fig season, the juice of the newly-ripe fruit having the power of giving it. It may occasion partial or total blindness. 2Ki 6:18.

The “burning boil,” Lev 13:23, is merely marked by the notion of an effect resembling that of fire, like our “carbuncle.” The diseases rendered “scab” and “scurvy” in Lev 21:20; Lev 22:22; Deu 28:27, may be almost any skin disease. Some of these may be said to approach the type of leprosy. The “botch (shechin) of Egypt,” Deu 28:27, is so vague a term as to yield a most uncertain sense. In Deu 28:35, is mentioned a disease attacking the “knees and legs,” consisting in a “sore botch which cannot be healed,” but extended, in the sequel of the verse, from the “sole of the foot to the top of the head.”

The Elephantiasis gracorum is what now passes under the name of “leprosy;” the lepers, for example, of the huts near the Zion gate of modern Jerusalem are elephantissiacs. See Leprosy.

The disease of King Antiochus, 2Ma 9:5-10, etc., was that of a boil breeding worms. The case of the widow’s son restored by Elisha, 2Ki 4:19, was probably one of sunstroke. The palsy meets us in the New Testament only, and in features, is too familiar to need special remark. Palsy, gangrene and cancer were common, in all the countries, familiar to the scriptural writers, and neither differs from the modern disease of the same name. Mention is also made of the bites and stings of poisonous reptiles. Num 21:6.

Among surgical instruments or pieces of apparatus, the following only are alluded to in Scripture: A cutting instrument, supposed a “sharp stone,” Exo 4:25, the “knife” of Jos 5:2, The “awl” of Exo 21:6 was probably a surgical instrument. The “roller to bind” of Eze 30:21 was for a broken limb, and is still used. A scraper, for which the “potsherd” of Job was a substitute. Job 2:8; Exo 30:23-25 is a prescription in form. An occasional trace occurs of some chemical knowledge, for example, The calcination of the gold by Moses, Exo 32:20, the effect of “vinegar upon natron,” Pro 25:20; compare Jer 2:22. The mention of “the apothecary,” Exo 30:35; Ecc 10:1, and of the merchant in “powders,” Son 3:6, shows that a distinct and important branch of trade was set up in these wares, in which, as at a modern druggist’s, articles of luxury, etc., are combined with the remedies of sickness.

Among the most favorite of external remedies has always been the bath. There were special occasions on which the bath was ceremonially enjoined. The Pharisees and Essenes aimed at scrupulous strictness in all such rules. Mat 15:2; Mar 7:5; Luk 11:38. River-bathing was common, but houses soon began to include a bathroom. Lev 15:13; 2Sa 11:2; 2Ki 5:10.

Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary

Medicine

Jer 30:13 (a) The Scriptures are used as a type in this place because they heal the broken heart, they mend the wounds that sin makes, they bind up the bruises that are incurred in wandering away from GOD’s path.

Jer 46:11 (a) The many means and methods used by Israel to help in their troubles and

sorrows are described by this type. Men are still evading GOD’s remedy and trying by legislation and by religious programs and by social service plans to relieve the wickedness and sin of men. None of these remedies are successful. Every one fails. Only that which is provided by GOD through JESUS CHRIST, and administered by the Holy Spirit will succeed in curing the ills of society.

Fuente: Wilson’s Dictionary of Bible Types

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