278 THOMAS CHAPLIN, ESQ., M.D., ON 



Herod Agrippa^s disease has long seemed to me to admit of a 

 more natural explanation than that Dr. Chaplin gives, that 

 " excoriations . . . "vvould very likely become infested with 

 worms," i.e., maggots — as we read of occurring in the case of 

 Herod the Great, Two observations made in Palestine to-day 

 appear to me to throw light on the occurrence. Firstly, that 

 among the common people (I find it every week when I see the 

 fellahin of Siloam at my dispensary there) almost all severe 

 abdominal pain is put down to " worms," i.e., to the " round 

 worms " and " tape worms " with which the people, specially the 

 fellahin, are infested. Secondly, that it is quite common, I have 

 witnessed it myself, that when a patient is extremely ill, for large 

 quantities of these worms to be discharged both by mouth and 

 rectum shortly before death. Sometimes indeed the worms 

 themselves give rise to the most alarming symptoms, as I witnessed 

 in a patient who was only relieved when she vomited up between 

 fifty and sixty " round worms." The first idea and then the 

 appearance of the worms would readily give rise to the popular 

 Aversion (notice Josephus does not mention it) that Herod Agrippa 

 was " eaten of worms." The version of his death which we have 

 in Josephus would fit it best with a "strangulated hernia," or 

 some other form of abdominal obstruction. 



Regai'ding JoVs disease I quite agree with Dr. Chaplin, but 

 mention it because I have seen it suggested that the disease may 

 have been a form of " Oriental boil." This " boil " known as the 

 "Aleppo button," " Baghdad date," etc., never occurs in Palestine 

 de novo. I have seen hundreds of Jews from both Aleppo 

 and its neighbourhood and Baghdad and have never failed to find 

 evidence of the " boil " either actually discharging or in the 

 form of a scar — usually on the face ; I have even known a child 

 who suffered for many months who was only in Aleppo for, I 

 think, fifteen days. Further the " Oriental boil " in such cases 

 is usually either single or at most in half a dozen places, and 

 though chronic and unresponsive to treatment does not cause 

 any great suffering. 



Dwellers in Jericho are apt to get a crop of chronic boils 

 (" Jericho boils ") at some seasons of the year, but it is very 

 doubtful if this is in any way a " specific disease." 



The most original and by far the most important part of 

 Dx\ Chaplin's paper is that in which he gives his views on leprosy. 



