HAUPT— TOBIT'S BLINDNESS AND SARA'S HYSTERIA. 89 



that dolphins enter the Nile {dclphini hmneantes Nilo) and attack 

 the crocodiles. He also states (32, 83) that some try out the livers 

 of dolphins and use the oil for cutaneous affections (quidani delphini 

 jccur- in fictili torrent donee pinguitudo siinilis oleo fluat ac pernn- 

 gunt). The common name for dolphin is porpoise, which is a con- 

 traction of parens and piseis, corresponding to the Ger. Schweine- 

 fiscJi. Porpoise-oil is used as a lubricant for watches. It is also 

 called eloek-oil. According to Pliny (32. 83), the ashes of dolphins 

 were used for eruptions and leprosy. The common dolphin usually 

 measures six to eight feet. It was formerly supposed to be a fish 

 and therefore allowed to be eaten by Catholics when the use of flesh 

 was prohibited. 



If Tobias burnt on roots of asafetida, which is used as a condi- 

 ment in the East, the liver and heart of a dolphin, which he had kept 

 for several days, the smell may well have expelled the demon. At 

 any rate, this remedy may have had a powerful effect on Sara. 

 Karl Binz, who retired from the chair of pharmacology in the Uni- 

 versity of Bonn in 1908, has shown that the volatile oils of valerian 

 act as sedatives of the motor cells in the anterior horns of grey mat- 

 ter of the spinal column. Recent experiments in the Pharmacologi- 

 cal Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University have shown that the 

 Hebrew incense was distinctly disinfective, but not sedative (JAOS 

 41, 178).^ The fishy fume, which drove Asmodeus away, is 

 alluded to in Milton's "Paradise Lost" (4, 168) : when Satan ap- 

 proached Eden, gentle gales dispensed native perfumes, and those 

 odorous sweets entertained the Fiend | Who came their bane, though 

 with them better pleased | Than Asmodeus with the fishy fume | Of 

 Tobit's son, and with a vengeance sent | From Media post to Egypt, 

 there fast bound. 



Tobias's fumigation was not undertaken for the purpose of dis- 



^ See David I. Macht and William M. Kunkel, " Concerning the anti- 

 septic action of some aromatic fumes," in the Proceedings of the Society of 

 Experimental Biology and Medicine, vol. 18, pp. 68-70 (1920). The burning 

 of various forms of incense exerted a distinct antiseptic action, but the in- 

 halation of incense in ordinary dilution produced no depression. On the 

 other hand, valerian and asafetida odors had a distinctly sedative effect. The 

 article by Dr. Macht and Dr. Ting on the effect' of aromatic drugs on the 

 behavior of rats will appear in vol. 18 of the Journal of Pliarmacology. 



