A DISSERTATION ON THE EPIDEMIC CHOLERA. 643 
graphic records. It occurs several times in the original Hebrew 
of the sacred writings, and as early as the books of the Penta¬ 
teuch of Moses. In the Hebrew, the word is often divided into 
two, >Vr7 choli and n ra; sometimes, however, united. Ac¬ 
cording to the Hebraists, choli simply signifies illness, sickness, 
inflictive disease, or plague, without any reference to, or as being 
in any raannev derived from, bile in particular. They inform us 
also, that the additional ra signifies that the said infliction or 
disease was in an excessive or superlative degree. We subjoin 
the references to all those passages where the term is said to be 
found, as well in the writings of Moses as in the other parts of 
the scriptures, that any one more deeply versed in the study of 
Hebrew than we profess to be, may have the opportunity of fully 
considering the true meaning and sense in which they have 
been employed. These passages, we ought also in justice to 
state, appear to have been first collected and observed by a 
gentleman of the Cambridge University, E. H. Smith, Esq. 
Deut. xxviii, ver. 59; vi^lS; 2 Chron. xxi, 15; 1 Kings xvii, 
17; and others. 
Here it is pretty clear and evident, that in this very ancient use 
of the term choli, it had no relation to the liver or any of its se¬ 
cretions, but did merely indicate a dire disease or infliction. 
And may it be otherwise than fair to conclude, that as Moses 
was said to be skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians,’^ 
and was an Egyptian by birth, that he derived the very term 
from this extraordinary people ? and is it not also as fair to con¬ 
clude, that the Greeks obtained it from the very same source, 
or rather from the Hebrews, and for reasons we shall see here¬ 
after ? 
For it may be worthy of remark, as a singular fact, that two 
words so nearly allied as the Hebrew choli and the Greek %oAvj, 
in which, in pronunciation, there is hardly a difference, should 
have had such very different significations, when used by two 
neighbouring states or nations; and that one should signify dis¬ 
ease only, whilst the other should signify bile only, since the 
Greeks appear to have had no other phrase for this secretion. 
It is, therefore, but reasonable to conclude, that this would give 
them a bias towards considering it a bilious disease, not easy to 
disembarrass themselves of, and in a still greater degree would 
be. this bias in those who consulted the Greek physicians, and 
learnt their language and their arts exteriorly; and such, we 
shall see, has been the general bias of nearly all European phy¬ 
sician. 
The additional ra alone serves to distinguish this term from 
the expression for bile, %oXv), and as ra would signify nothing in 
