hope for the time, when the peaceful genius of the gos. pel shall so far prevail, as to expel the dæmon of war from the earth. SECT. XIII. Diseases in Judea. History of Jewish medicine. Leprosy; its symptoms in Leviticus, by Dr. Cullen, Wallis, and Maundrell: elephantiasis, the disease with which Job is thought to have been afflicted: consumption, and burning ague: fever; the botch of Egypt; emerods; scab; itch; madness and blindness. Bowel complaints; menorrhagia; the plague; Hezekiah's boil; stroke of the sun; lunacy; anointing with oil; James v. 14 explained. A catalogue of diseases given by Josephus, the Talmud, and Buxtorff. Demoniacal possession ; reason of its frequency in our Saviour's days; advantage of christianity to surgery and physic. THE most ancient account of physic is that of Egypt, when the physicians embalmed the patriarch Jacob, at the request of Joseph; and of which embalming we shall give an account, when treating of the manner in which the Jews disposed of their dead. Moses styles these physicians servants to Joseph, whence we are certain that they were not priests, as the first physicians are generally supposed to have been: for in that age the Egyptian priests were in such high favour, that they retained their liberty, when, through a public calamity, all the rest of the people became slaves to the king. It is probable, therefore, that among the Egyptians, religion and medicine were not originally conjoined. That the Jewish physicians were absolutely distinct from their priests is very certain: for, when Asa was diseased in his feet, "he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.” Hence it is clear that, among the Jews, the medicinal art was considered as a mere human invention, and it was thought that the Deity never cured diseases, by making people acquainted with the virtues of any par ticular herb, but only by his miraculous power. That the same opinion prevailed among the heathens who resided near the Jews, is also probable, from what is recorded of Ahaziah king of Judah, who, having sent messengers to inquire of Baal-zebub, god of Ekron, concerning his disease, he did not desire any remedy from him or from his priests, but only to know whether he should recover. It is therefore probable, that religion and medicine came to be conjoined only in consequence of that degeneracy into ignorance and superstition which took place among all nations. We have very few intimations of the state of physic in the Scriptures, but it may be proper to collect what we have, and to compare them with the additional light which travellers and others have thrown on the subject. The first disease mentioned in Scripture is the Leprosy (Lepra,) whose symptoms are thus described in the 13th and 14th chapters of Leviticus: 1st, It sometimes appeared on the arms, body, or feet, as a rising or pimple, a scab, or a bright spot, which in sight appeared deeper than the skin, the hair whereof turned white; and as the disease increased, quick raw flesh appeared in the rising, and when the person became completely leprous, the skin became white and dry. 2dly, A leprosy in the head or beard was distinguished by being in sight deeper than the skin, and the hair of the place became thin and yellow. 3dly, A leprosy in the bald part of the head appeared by a rising sore of a reddish white colour. When garments of linen, wool, or skin, were infected with it, the part appeared of a greenish or reddish colour; according, perhaps, to the colour or nature of the ingredients used in preparing them: for acids convert blue vegetable colours into red, and alkalies change Perth, Encycl. art. Medicine. them into green. And when the walls of a house were infected, they had hollow streaks of a greenish or reddish colour also, which in sight were lower than the wall. Such are the marks of leprosy as given by Moses, and they correspond with the observations of modern writers: thus, Dr. Cullen* describes the skin as rough, with white, branny, and chopped eschars, sometimes moist beneath, with itching; and Wallis tells us, that it first begins with red pimples, or pustules, breaking out in various parts of the body, sometimes single, and sometimes a great number together, especially on the arms and legs; and as the disease increases, fresh pimples appear, which, joining the former, make a sort of clusters, all of which enlarge their borders, and spread in an orbicular form; the superfices of these pustules are rough, whitish, and scaly; when they are scratched, the scales fall off, upon which a thin ichor oozes out, which soon dries and hardens into a scaly crust: these clusters are at first small and few; perhaps only three or four in an arm or leg; but as the disease increases, they become more numerous, and the clusters increase to a considerable breadth, but not exactly round: afterwards it increases to such a degree, that the whole body is covered with a leprous scurf. I am enabled, on the authority of a friend who has often seen the disease, to state, that the apparent depression of the pimple or bright spot below the general surface of the skin, although unnoticed by Cullen or Wallis, is yet, as Moses relates, a distinguishing symptom of the disease. Thus do we see then, that it is both infectious to others and loathsome to themselves; that it was a collection of disagreeable, itchy, hot, burning ulcers at the beginning, and terminated in an universal scurvy, where numberless thin white scales fell from the skin, like bran, and gave it the appearance of snow. Maun drell's account of the lepers he saw in the Holy Land is as follows: "When I was in the Holy Land I saw several that laboured under Gehazi's distemper, particularly at Sichem, or Naplosa, there were no less than ten that came a begging to us at one time. Their manner is to come with small buckets in their hands, to receive the alms of the charitable, their touch being still held infectious, or at least unclean. The distemper, as I saw it in them, was very different from what I saw of it in England; for it not only defiles the whole surface of the body with a foul scurf, but also deforms the joints of the body, particularly those of the wrists and ankles, making them swell with a gouty scrofulous substance, very loathsome to look upon. The whole distemper, as it appeared to me, was so noisome, that it might well pass for the utmost corruption of the human body on this side the grave." In the Mosaic law it was considered infectious only in its first stage, that is to say, while the pimples and ulcers continued to spread, for, during that time, the persons infected were either shut up till the priest saw no farther reason, or dwelt without the camp or city, having their clothes rent, their heads bare, and a covering on their upper lip, like mourners: whilst on the approach of any clean person, they were commanded to warn him of his danger, by crying out "Unclean, unclean." But when the whole body became leprous, that is to say, after it became dry and scaly, it was considered no longer dangerous, and the persons were re-admitted into society. Thus Naaman the Syrian, although a leper, was captain of the host of the king of Syria, and a great man with his master, and honourable. And Jesus, when a Exod. iv. 6. Num. xii. 10. 2 Kings v. 27. c Ezek. xxiv. 17. 22. Micah iii, 7. • 2 Kings v. 1. b Num. v. 2. b d Levit. xiii, 13-17. at Bethany was entertained in the house of one Simon a leper." It does not appear that the Jewish physicians attempted a cure of this disease; but it has often been found to yield to modern practice; and I may add, that other nations besides the Jews had distinctive habits for lepers for Megabyzus, having escaped from Cyrta, a town near the Red Sea, where he had been banished by Artaxerxes Longimanus, travelled under the habit and disguise of one, to his own house at Susa or Shushan, where, by the interest of his wife and his mother, he was reconciled to the king." The next disease we find mentioned is that which was inflicted on Job, and of which he so feelingly complains in several parts of his book. Commentators have differed as to its peculiar nature; but the best informed have fixed upon Elephantiasis, as a disease well known in eastern countries, and corresponding with the hints which Job gives of it in his conversations with his friends. The following is an abridgment of what is said of it by Dr. Heberden and Michaelis. It begins with a sudden eruption of tubercles or tumours of different sizes, of a red colour, attended with great heat and itching on different parts of the body, and a degree of fever by which the skin acquires a remarkably shining appearance but when the fever abates, the tubercles become either indolent knots, or in some degree scirrhous, and of a livid or copper colour; and after some months they degenerate into fetid ulcers. As the disease advances, the features of the face swell, the hair of the eyebrows falls off, the voice becomes hoarse, the breath exceedingly offensive, the skin of the body is unusually loose, wrinkled, rough, destitute of hairs, and overspread with tumours, and often with ulcers, or else with a thick, a Matt. xxvi. 6. b Prideaux, Connect. A.A.C. 446. |