268 THOMAS CHAl'LIN, ESQ.^ M.D., ON 



And the probaLility is that cholera had not at that early 

 period spread westward from its birthplace in India. 



11. Herod Agrippas Disease {Acts xii., 23). — Much ingenuity 

 has been employed in endeavouring to fix upon a disease to 

 which the description " eaten of worms" would apply. But 

 the probability is that the worms did not constitute the 

 disease itself, but were only an accidental (Providential) 

 accompaniment of it. Josephus {Antiq. xix., 8, 2) states that 

 Agrippa suffered from severe pains in his body, probably 

 dysentery, and any excoriations which might be caused by 

 the discharges would very likely become infested with 

 *' worms." Such occurrences ai-e very common in those 

 lands- Herod the Great suffered in the same way 

 (Josephus, Antiq., xvii., (^, 5), and Antiochus Epiphanes is 

 reported (2 Maccab. ix., 5-9) to have died under similar 

 conditions. The writer has seen many instances of the 

 presence of " worms " (maggots) in wounds and excoriations, 

 and the rapidity with which they develop is marvellous. 

 In one case the worms were found burrowed in the " proud 

 flesh " of a neglected wound in the scalp ; in another two or 

 three dozen were taken out of a deep ulcer in the cheek ; in 

 a third a fresh crop presented themselves every morning in 

 ulcers between an old man's toes, much to the surprise and 

 vexation of the nurse, who thought their appearance might 

 be attributed to his want of care. The flesh of Job was 

 "clothed with worms" (Job vii., 5). During the Crimean 

 war, at one sad period when the Avounded soldiers could 

 not be attended to without delay, their v/ounds were found 

 " crawling with insects." 



12. Hizekiah's sickness, shekhin, was probably a severe car- 

 buncle, such as often proves fatal. A plaster or poultice of figs 

 is at the present day a common application to boils, carbuncles, 

 and abscesses, in Palestine. It has, however, been suggested 

 that the disease was quiasy; the words "like a crane or 

 swallow, so did I chatter," indicating a change of voice like 

 that produced by the latter affection. 



13. Job's Disease is by some confidently assumed to have 

 been elephantiasis, or true " leprosy," but the Hebrew word 

 pnU^, shekhin, which is applied to it, is universally allowed to 

 mean a burning ulcer or boil, which is not a characteristic of 

 elephantiasis. It is peihaps impossible to come to any certain 

 conclusion with reference to the precise nature of the 

 infliction, but the following considerations may lead to a 

 probable opinion. (1) Although superuaturally inflicted, 



