SOME DISEASES MENTIONED IN THE BIBLE. 279 



It lias alv/ays seemed to me that the attempt to square the 

 accounts in Leviticus with the physical signs of the disease 

 Elephantiasis Gi'cecorum, popularly known as leprosy, is quite 

 hopeless. I think that Dr. Chaplin is quite correct in his opinion 

 that in the Old Testament descriptions we have references to a 

 number of skin diseases then considered contagious, such for 

 example as "ringworm " and " favus," both of which are exceed- 

 ingly common among the Jews of this land to-day. It is probable, 

 however, that as the conditions of life have been largely changed 

 the manifestations of disease may be so much altered that we 

 cannot i-ecognize familiar diseases, or, equally probably, some of 

 the particular diseases here referred to may have been stamped 

 out. 



There is some probability that the leprosy of the New 

 Testament may have been the disease we now know ; indeed the 

 references we have to the lepers are constantly being brought 

 to one's mind by seeing the wandering groups of lepers in 

 the land to-day. Leprosy, i.e., Elephantiasis Grceconcm, is not 

 now a common disease in Palestine, but for many reasons the 

 lepers are very much in evidence. They are all segregated in 

 four centres, viz., Ramleh, Jerusalem, Kablous and Damascus, 

 w^here they have houses provided for them by the Government. 

 They, however, live by begging, and haunt for that reason the 

 most public places as well as freely mixing with the general 

 population in the roads and markets ; probably in the land, i.e., in 

 the " Holy Land " proper, there are not more than 150 individuals. 



With the exception of those gathered in the Moravian Leper 

 Hospital in Jerusalem, at present numbering fifty-four, these 

 unfortunates receive no medical aid ; it is freely offered to them by 

 the Moravians and others, but they do not care for it. One medical 

 man in the land told me he had made persistent efforts to help 

 them, but they will not continue any treatment except when under 

 the discipline of a hospital, and to that many object. Most of the 

 lepers are fellahin irora the villages and the cases usually appear 

 to occur sporadically. I have, during the past ten years, seen but 

 three genuine cases of leprosy among Jews. 



Many of the analogies made popularly between leprosy and 

 sin are unfortunate. Leprosy is (1) not inevitably fatal ; cases of 

 ansesthetic leprosy may after long years spend their violence, as it 

 were, leaving the patient a wreck it is true, but free of that 



