276 thoma.s chaplin, esq., m.b., on 



Communication. 

 The following note on Dr. Chaplin's papei' has been forwarded 

 by Dr. E. W. GuRNEY Masterman, F.R.C.S., D.P.H., of the English 

 Mission Hospital, Jerusalem. 



The " uncorrected proof " copy of Dr. Chaplin's paper, " On some 

 diseases mentioned in the Bible," has just reached me to-day, 

 May 21st, and therefore too late for me to write before the 

 meeting. As I have for the greater part of the last ten years 

 been practising as a medical man in various parts of the Holy 

 Land, I venture to add a few criticisms. 



It must always be, as Dr. Chaplin points out, a matter of much 

 uncertainty to identify the " diseases of the Bible " from the 

 extremely meagi^e descriptions we hear. This identiBcation too is 

 all the harder from the fact that the accounts given are quite 

 unscientific. A medical man to-day would often find it hard to 

 recognize a disease fi^om the brief account of a layman, specially 

 one entirely ignorant of science. In this land of Palestine I almost 

 daily receive descriptions of diseased conditions, which, on exami- 

 nation of the patient, turn out to be utterly incoi^rect. Then, 

 secondly, it is now generally recognized that there has been a 

 slow evolution of disease, some may, nay, probably have, dis- 

 appeared, others, unknown in Old Testament times, are now 

 prevalent. Tubercular diseases, specially phthisis (i.e., con- 

 sumption) which are now increasingly rampant in the cities of 

 Palestine, would appear to have been quite rare early in last 

 century. Influenza here, as in Europe, has been recently re- 

 introduced, and receives the name among the natives to-day of 

 Aho rikah, i.e., the father of the Kuus, which, in Dr. Chaplin's 

 time, seems to have been compared to dengue. Scarlet fever is 

 exceedingly rare, and many doctors of great experience in the 

 land deny that it occurs, but German measles, which closely 

 simulates it, is a common epidemic. 



While then it is hopeless to be scientifically sure regarding 

 diseases in such ancient times, the best hope we can have of 

 coming to a right conclusion lies in studying, as Di\ Chaplin has 

 done, those diseases which are common in the land, and sj)ecially 

 among the Jews, to-day. 



Without committing myself to any theological opinion regarding 

 the vexed question of demoniacal possession I would point out that 



