supported. This dreadful malady, which the ancient medical writer Paulus Ægineta has accurately characterised as an universal ulcer, was named elephantiasis by the Greeks, from its rendering the skin of the patient like that of an elephant, scabrous and dark-coloured, and furrowed all over with tubercles, loathsome alike to the individual and to the spectators. When it attains a certain height, as it appears to have done in this instance, it is incurable, and, consequently, affords the unhappy patient no prospect but that of long-continued misery.1 3. The DISEASE OF THE PHILISTINES, mentioned in 1 Sam. v. 6. 12. and vi. 17., has been supposed to be the dysentery; but it was most probably the hæmorrhoids or bleeding piles, in a very aggravated degree. Jahn, however, considers it as the effect of the bite of venomous solpugas.2 4. The DISEASE OF SAUL (1 Sam. xvi. 14.) appears to have been a true madness, of the melancholic or atrabilarious kind, as the ancient physicians termed it; the fits of which returned on the unhappy monarch at uncertain periods, as is frequently the case in this sort of malady. The remedy applied, in the judgment of experienced physicians, was an extremely proper one, viz. playing on the harp. The character of the modern oriental music is expression, rather than science and it may be easily conceived how well adapted the unstudied and artless strains of David were to soothe the perturbed mind of Saul; which strains were bold and free from his courage, and sedate through his piety.3 This so 5. The DISEASE OF JEHORAM KING OF ISRAEL. vereign, who was clothed with the double infamy of being at once an idolater and the murderer of his brethren, was diseased internally for two years, as had been predicted by the prophet Elijah; and his bowels are said at last to have fallen out by reason of his sickness. (2 Chron. xxi. 12-15. 18, 19.) This disease, Dr. Mead says, beyond all doubt was the dysentery, and though its continuance so long a time was very uncommon, it is by no means a thing unheard of. The intestines in time become ulcerated by the operation of this disease. Not only blood is discharged from them, but a sort of mucous excrement likewise is thrown off, and sometimes small pieces of the flesh itself; so that apparently the intestines are emitted or fall out, which is sufficient to account for the expressions that are used in the statement of king Jehoram's disease.1 6. The DISEASE WITH WHICH HEZEKIAH WAS AFFLICTED (2 Kings xx. 7.; Isa. xxxviii. 21.) has been variously supposed to be a pleurisy, the plague, the elephantiasis, and the quinsey. But Dr. Mead is of opinion that the malady was a fever which terminated in an abscess; and for promoting its suppuration a cataplasm of figs was admirably adapted. The case of Hezekiah, however, indicates not only the limited knowledge of the Jewish physicians at that time, but (London, 1755.) Good's translation of Job, p. 22, Mead's Medica Sacra, pp. 20–33. Jahn's Archæol. Bibl. § 187. 1 Mead's Medica Sacra, pp. 1-11. also that though God can cure by a miracle, yet he also gives sagacity to discover and apply the most natural remedies.' 7. Concerning the nature of NEBUCHADNEZZAR'S MALADY (Dan. iv. 25, 26. 31-33.), learned men are greatly divided, but the most probable account of it is that given by Dr. Mead; who remarks that all the circumstances of it, as related by Daniel, so perfectly agree with hypochondriacal madness, that to him it appears evident, that Nebuchadnezzar.was seized with this distemper, and under its influence ran wild into the fields; and that fancying himself transformed into an ox, he fed on grass in the manner of cattle. For every sort of madness is a disease of a disturbed imagination; under which this unhappy man laboured full seven years. And through neglect of taking proper care of himself, his hair and nails grew to an excessive length; by which the latter growing thicker and crooked resembled the claws of birds. Now, the ancients called persons affected with this species of madness λυκανθρώποι (wolf-men) or κυνανθρώποι (dog-men); because they went abroad in the night imitating wolves or dogs; particularly intent upon opening the sepulchres of the dead, and had their legs much ulcerated, either by frequent falls or the bites of dogs. In like manner are the daughters of Proetus related to have been mad, who, as Virgil says, 2 Implerunt falsis mugitibus agros.3 With mimick'd mooings filled the fields. For, as Servius observes, Juno possessed their minds with such a species of madness, that fancying themselves cows, they ran into the fields, bellowed often, and dreaded the plough. But these, according to Ovid, the physician Melampus, · per carmen et herbas Eripuit furiis. Snatch'd from the furies by his charms and herbs. Nor was this disorder unknown to the moderns: for Schenckius records a remarkable instance of it in a husbandman of Padua, who imagined that he was a wolf, attacked, and even killed several persons in the fields; and when at length he was taken, he persevered in declaring himself a real wolf, and that the only difference consisted in the inversion of his skin and hair. But it may be objected to this opinion, that his misfortune was foretold to the king, so that he might have prevented it by correcting his morals; and, therefore, it is not probable that it befell him in the course of nature. But we know that those things which God executes, either through clemency or vengeance, are frequently performed by the assistance of natural causes. Thus, having threatened Hezekiah with death, and being afterwards moved by his prayers, he restored him to life, and made Medica Sacra, p. 37. 2 See Aetius, Lib. Medicin. lib. vi., and Paul. Ægineta, lib. iii. c. 16. Eclog. vi. 48. Metamorph. xv. 325. • Observationes Medica Rar. de Lycanthrop. Obs. 1. He use of figs laid on the tumour, as a medicine for his disease. ordered king Herod, upon account of his pride, to be devoured by worms. And no one doubts but that the plague, which is generally attributed to the divine wrath, most commonly owes its origin to corrupted air.1 8. The PALSY of the New Testament is a disease of very wide import, and the Greek word, which is so translated, comprehended not fewer than five different maladies, viz. (1.) Apoplexy, a paralytic shock, which affected the whole body; (2.) Hemiplegy, which affects and paralyses only one side of the body; the case mentioned in Matt. ix. 2. appears to have been of this sort;-(3.) Paraplegy, which paralyses all the parts of the system below the neck;-(4.) Catalepsy, which is caused by a contraction of the muscles in the whole or part of the body; the hands, for instance. This is a very dangerous disease; and the effects upon the parts seized are very violent and deadly. Thus, when a person is struck with it, if his hand happens to be extended, he is unable to draw it back; if the hand be not extended, when he is so struck, he is unable to extend it. It seems to be diminished in size, and dried up in appearance: whence the Hebrews were accustomed to call it a withered hand. The impious Jeroboam was struck with catalepsy (1 Kings xiii. 4–— 6.); the prophet Zechariah, among the judgments he was commissioned to denounce against the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock, threatens that his arm shall be dried up. (Zech. xi. 17.) Other instances of this malady occur in Matt. xii. 10. and John v. 3. 5. (5.) The Cramp. This, in oriental countries, is a fearful malady, and by no means unfrequent. It originates from the chills of the night; the limbs, when seized with it, remain inmoveable, sometimes turned in and sometimes out, in the very same position as when they were first seized. The person afflicted resembles a man undergoing the torture, and experiences nearly the same sufferings. Death follows this disease in a few days. Alcimus was struck with it (1 Macc. ix. 55-58.), as also was the centurion's servant. (Matt. viii. 6.) 9. The disease, which in Matt. ix. 20., Mark v. 25., and Luke viii. 43., is denominated an ISSUE OF BLOOD, is too well known to require any explanation. Physicians confess it to be a disorder which is very difficult of cure. (Mark v. 26.)2 How does this circumstance magnify the benevolent miracle, wrought by Jesus Christ on a woman who had laboured under it for twelve years! 10. The BLINDNESS of the sorcerer Elymas (Acts xiii. 6-12.) is in the Greek denominated axλus, and with great propriety, being rather an obscuration than a total extinction of sight. It was occasioned by a thin coat or tunicle of hard substance, which spread itself over a portion of the eye, and interrupted the power of vision. Hence the disease is likewise called σxóтos, or darkness. It was easily cured, and sometimes even healed of itself, without resorting to any medical prescription. Therefore St. Paul added in his denunciation, 1 Medica Sacra, pp. 58-61. 2 Jahn's Archæologia Biblica, § 199. that the impostor should not see the sun for a season. But the blind ness of the man, of whose miraculous restoration to sight we have so interesting an account in John ix., was total, and being inveterate from his birth, was incurable by any human art or skill. 11. Lastly, in the New Testament we meet with repeated instances of what are termed DEMONIACAL POSSESSION. The reality of such possessions indeed has been denied by some authors, and attempts have been made by others to account for them, either as the effect of natural disease, or the influence of imagination on persons of a nervous habit. But it is manifest, that the persons, who in the New Testament are said to be possessed with devils (more correctly with demons) cannot mean only persons afflicted with some strange disease; for they are evidently (Luke iv. 33-36. 41.) distinguished from the diseased. Further, Christ's speaking on various occasions to these evil spirits, as distinct from the persons possessed by them, his commanding them and asking them questions, and receiving answers from them, or not suffering them to speak, and several circumstances relating to the terrible preternatural effects which they had upon the possessed, and to the manner of Christ's evoking them, particularly their requesting and obtaining permission to enter the herd of swine (Matt. viii. 31, 32.), and precipitating them into the sea; all these circumstances can never be accounted for by any distemper whatever. Further, "the inworking spirits knew and acknowledged Jesus to be the Messiah, when there were no outward circumstances to give the hint to the sagacity of a maniac. (Matt. viii. 29.; Mark i. 34., iii. 11, 12.) If these had been the declarations of mere insane persons, what a fatal objection" [it would have been] "to the argument which is tacitly drawn from the testimonies by the evangelists! And Jesus imparted the power of casting out demons as a miraculous gift to his disciples in terms explicitly recognising the fact of real possessions (Matt. x. 1.; Mark xvi. 17, 18.), and the exercise of this gift as a victory over Satan. (Luke x. 17-20.)"1 Nor is it any reasonable objection that we do not read of such frequent possessions before or since the appearance of our Redeemer upon earth. It seems, indeed, to have been ordered by a special providence that they should have been permitted to have then been more common; in order that He, who came to destroy the works of the Devil, might the more remarkably and visibly triumph over him; and that the machinations and devices of Satan might be more openly defeated, at a time when their power was at its highest, both in the souls and bodies of men; and also, that plain facts might be a sensible confutation of the Sadducean error, which denied the existence of angels or spirits (Acts xxiii. 8.), and which prevailed among the principal men both for rank and learning in those days. The cases of the demoniacs expelled by the apostles were cases of real possession; and it is a well known fact, that in the second century of the Christian æra, the apologists for the persecuted professors of the faith of Christ appealed to their ejection of evil spirits as a proof of the divine 1 Dr. J. P. Smith's First Lines of Christian Theology, p. 336. origin of their religion. Hence it is evident that the demoniacs were not merely insane or epileptic patients, but person really and truly vexed and convulsed by unclean demons.1 SECT. II. TREATMENT OF THE DEAD. -FUNERAL RITES. So strong was the love of life among the Hebrews, that instances of suicide are of extremely rare occurrence in the history of that people. Saul, Ahithophel, and the traitor Judas are the only persons recorded to have laid violent hands upon themselves, in a fit of desperation. (1 Sam. xxxi. 4, 5. ; 2 Sam. xvii. 23.; Matt. xxvii. 3-5.) In the last period of the Jewish state, however, the custom of the Romans appears to have greatly lessened the horror of suicide among the Jews2; but that most terrible of all diseases, the leprosy, seems to have rendered its victims utterly regardless of life. (Job vii. 15.) I. The Hebrews, in common with many other ancient nations, especially in the East, were accustomed to represent death by various terms which were calculated to mitigate the appalling image inspired by that last enemy of mankind. Hence they often called death a journey or departure. (Josh. xxiii. 14.; 1 Kings ii. 2.; Eccles. v. 15., vi. 6.; Luke ii. 29.) Frequently also they compared it to sleep, and to rest after the toils of life were over (Gen. xlvii. 30.; Job iii. 13. 17-19.; Isa. xiv. 8., lvii. 2.; Matt. ix. 29., xxvii. 52.; John xi. 11.; Acts vii. 60.; 1 Cor. xi. 30.; 1 Thess. iv. 13. ; 2 Pet. iii. 4.; Rev. xiv. 13.); and it was a very common expression to say, that the party deceased had gone, or was gathered to his fathers or to his people. (Gen. xv. 15., xxv. 8. 17., xxxv. 29., xlix. 29. 33.; Numb. xx. 24., xxvii. 13., xxxi. 2.; Deut. xxxii. 50.; Judg. ii. 10.; 2 Kings xxii. 20.)3 II. By the law of Moses a dead body conveyed a legal pollution to every thing that touched it, even to the very house and furniture, which continued seven days. (Numb. xix. 14, 15, 16.) And this was the reason why the priests, on account of their daily ministrations in holy things, were forbidden to assist at any funerals, but those of their nearest relatives (Lev. xxi. 1—4., 10-12.); nay, the very dead bones, though they had lain ever so long in the grave, if digged up, conveyed a pollution to any who touched them. This circumstance will account for Josiah's causing the bones of the false priests to be burnt upon the altar at Bethel (2 Chron. xxxiv. 5.), in order that these altars, being thus polluted, might be held in the greater detestation.1 For a summary of the evidence that the demoniacs, mentioned in the New Testament were persons really possessed by evil spirits, see Bp. Newton's Works, vol. iv. pp. 256304., and Dr. Townsend's Harmony of the New Test., vol. i. pp. 157–160. 2 Josephus, De Bell. Jud. lib. iii. c. 8. §§ 4-7. Pareau, Antiquitas Hebr. pp. 468, 469. Michaelis has examined at length the 4 Home's Hist. of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 362. reason and policy of the Mosaic statutes on this subject. |