SOME DISEASES MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE. 259 



8, 9), and it cannot be supposed that He was ignorant of the 

 true nature of these cases, or could give any countenance to 

 popular error respecting them. It has been observed that it 

 is chiefly at the time of our Saviour's ministry on earth that 

 people are said to have been thus " possessed," and that the 

 phenomenon ceased at an early period after His ascension, 

 as if the prince of the devils had then been permitted to 

 make special efforts to counteract the influence of the 

 presence and power of the Son of God. If this is the right 

 view, the question of demoniacal possession becomes removed 

 from the category of mere bodily diseases, and is foreign to 

 the subject of this essay. 



In Palestine there still occur remarkable instances of 

 mental and nervous disorder, which are ascribed by certain 

 classes to possession ; not always possession by a " devil." 

 but by the spirit of some deceased person or of an animal. 

 Such a spirit is called by the Jews dibbuk, something that 

 cleaves or sticks. 



6. Fevers of various kinds are exceedingly frequent in 

 Mediterranean countries ; and in Palestine itself, Avhich has 

 in its small extent a great variety of climatic conditions^ 

 almost all the known varieties of febrile disorder are met 

 with, except one or two which occur only in the tropics. 

 Typhus and typhoid, remittent and intermittent fevers iu 

 their several forms, scarlet fever, smallpox, measles, dengue 

 (or break-bone fever, called by the Arabs "the father of 

 knees," because of the knee-pains Avhich accompany it), are 

 some of the fevers which every now and then become 

 epidemic, and (with the exception of dengue) lead to great 

 destruction of life. There is reason for believing that many 

 of these were known in ancient times, and are signified by 

 various Avords used in the Holy Scriptures. The "fever," 

 the "inflammation," and the "extreme burning" of Deut.. 

 xxviii., 22, are doubtless forms of fever known by those 

 names at the time the book was written. Jinij? (kaddokhath),. 

 translated " fever," is a word still in use with the same 

 signification among the Jews of Eastern Europe and the 

 Levant who mingle Hebrew with their ordinary speech, 



I have even heard it used in London. I^phl (daleketh), 



"inflammation," probably indicates a violent fit of ague, as 

 denoted by thept76t of the LXX. : whilst inin {harhur) may 



mean some internal inflammation, such as pneumonia or 

 pleurisy, or possibly a cutaneous aftection producing great 



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