Epilepsy is mentioned in Mt 17° (RV) as the cause of the convulsive seizures of the boy described there and in Lk 938, The account of the fit, begin- ning with a cry, followed by his falling down and becoming convulsed, foaming at the mouth, grind- ing his teeth, bruising himself sorely, sometimes falling into the fire and sometimes into the water, is exactly in accord with a typical epileptic fit. He had he subject to these from ἀκ σῆς about one-fourth of epileptics have their first fit within the first decade of life, 12 per cent. within the first three years. The ‘pining away’ men- tioned in Mk 918 is characteristic of one form of the disease, in which the fits are frequently recurring. The record of the last Seine in which he ‘wallowed foaming,’ is very graphic. The verb used to describe the attack in Mt is σεληνιάζομαι, literally ‘to be moon-struck,’ but thereby is meant epilepsy, not lunacy as in AV. The connexion between epilepsy and the phases of the moon was believed in down to a comparatively late period. Vicary, the surgeon to Henry ΥἹΙΠ., writing in
328
MEDICINE
1577, says of the brain that ‘it moueth and followeth the mouing of the Moone: for in the waxing of the Moone, the Se followeth upwardes: and in the wane of the Moone the brayne discendeth downwardes, and vanishes in substance of vertue : for the Brayne shrinketh together in itselfe and is not so fully obedient to the spirit of feeling. And this is proved in menne that ἐς Innatike or madde, and also in men that be epulentike [=epileptic] or having the falling sickness, that be moste greeved in the beginning of the new moone,’ etc. The moon-struck are distinguished in Mt 4* from the opens and from those possessed by devils. Moonstroke is also mentioned in Ps 1915, Among the later Jews epilepsy was treated by means of amulets called j py nyop, and by the application of certain insects named yn pw. See Shabbath 61, and Tosefta Shabbath, in loc.
Sunstroke in Ps 121°, coupled with moonstroke, is also mentioned in Is 401, It was the cause of the death of the Shunammite’s son, stricken in the harvest field (2 K 419), and of Manasseh, Judith’s husband, as he stood overseeing the binders of sheaves in the field (Jth 8%). In the former case the child was suddenly affected with sharp pain in his head, and, on being carried to his mother, lay on her knees till noon, and then died. There are several diseases which are confounded under the name of heat-stroke or sun-stroke,— sun-syncope, sun-traumatism, sometimes menin- gitis; but this seems to have been a genuine example of siriasis. This disease has been described by Sambon (Brit, Med. Journ. 1898, March 19, p. 744) as a rapidly fatal, febrile condition, begin- ning with high temperature, violent pains in the head, and passing rapidly into coma, death taking place ‘within a few hours or even minutes of the onset of insensibility’ (Manson, 210). The Shunammite’s child was laid, after his death, on the prophet’s bed until his mother had brought Elisha back from Mount Carmel. By the time Gehazi arrived the body had become cold; and the subsequent restoration to life was plainly miraculous, as the mere stretching of the prophet on the body could not have brought back Bhewice! Syria is one of the countries in which this disease occurs.
The case of Jonah, on the other hand, was one of heat syncope; he fainted from the heat, and suffered the severe headache which always super- venes in such cases after the recovery of conscious- ness. In these cases, unlike true siriasis, the temperature of the body falls, and the surface feels cold and appears pale; ‘usually after a short time the peene gradually recovers, very likely with a splitting headache and a feeling of intense
rostration’ (Manson, 202). It was in this con-
ition that the prophet said ‘it is better for me to die than to live’ (Jon 48),
Dropsy.—In Lk 145 the cure of a case of dropsy is recorded. The patient had been able to enter into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees at Jerusalem, where Jesus was being entertained. The man is called ὑδρωπικός, the word used by the Greek physicians for dropsy in general. “ The disease may have been a universal anasarca, due to disease of the kidneys or heart, or else abdominal dropsy, usually dependent on disease of the liver. In all cases this is a dangerous symptom, and it usually indicates a comparatively large amount of organic disease. In Shabbath 33. 1, dropsy is said to be the punishment of transgression. It is common in Jerusalem; see Macgowan in Jewish Intelligence, 1842, p. 319.
Pulmonary disease, as such, is not referred to in Scripture. It is said of the widow’s son at
Zarephath that his sickness was so sore there was no breath left in him(1K 17); but this simply
MEDICINE
means that he died. The modern Jewish authori- ties, in their directions for the slaughter οἱ animals for purposes of food, regard the state of the lungs as of the utmost importance, and minute instructions are given for the recognition of patho- logical conditions which rendered the carcase unfit for food.
The nature of the disease from which Asa suffered in his feet is not mentioned (1 K 15%, 2Ch 16"). The former writer says that it affected him in his old age, the latter in the 39th year of his reign; and adds that he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. This may have been suggested by the king’s name (x>x), which prob- ably means ‘healer.’ Josephus apparently knows nothing of the disease, and describes Asa as dying happily after he had attained a long and blesse old age (Ant. vill. xii. 6). The Rabbinical belief was that the malady was gout (Sota 10a, Sanhe- drin). Rashi has conjectured from the wording of y.* that the disease mounted to his head. Others have supposed that this infliction was a punish- ment because he had not exempted the children of the wise from the labour of carrying away the stones of Ramah (1 K 15”). There is no clue in the passage to the nature of the disease. Hippocrates says truly that gout, although it may be long and laborious, yet is seldom mortal (peri Pathon, ed. Kuhn, 407). As Asa’s disease began in old age, it may have been a case of senile penerene. Gout is very rare among natives of Palestine. Kamp- hausen suggests that it may have been articular leprosy (see Riehm’s ΜΠ ΗΓΒ, art. ‘ Krankheiten’).