Scuryy (RV), scab (AV) (Dt 28% 293 σᾶγαν) is the ψώρα ἀγρία of LXX, scabies of the Vulgate.
In Ly 21” it is called ‘scurvy’ in AV. This disease has nothing to do with the true scurvy, but is also an itchy disease in which a thick crust forms on the skin; it is most rebellious to treat- ment, and technically known as favus. It is commonest on the head, where it is called ‘seald head,’ and is due to a fungus, the Achorion Schon- leinti. This is the garabu of WATii. 44.13. It sometimes spreads over the entire body, and, in neglected, exaggerated cases, covers the entire face as with a mask. Sometimes it causes ulceration of the subjacent skin, and Alibert describes it as, in some cases, affecting even the cranial bones. It also is not uncommon in Syria.
Scab in Ly 21” is the tr. of n5~ yallepheth, meaning ‘an itching,’ ‘scab’ (LXX λειχήν). It is propelly another form of the disease just described.
‘he infliction of this scab on the head is described in Is 3” by the verb ny sippah (LXX ταπεινώσει) ; see Gitlin 70a.
The scall or scurf of the head and beard of Ly 13” is pn nethek, probably tinea tonsurans or mentagra, another parasitic disease of somewhat similar character ; p73, the freckled spot of Ly 13%, may be psoriasis, a non-contagious scaly eruption. See Leprosy, p. 96.
The botch of Egypt of Dt 2857. 35 is called pnw, an inflamed or ulcerated spot. The same word is used to describe Job’s alas (Job 27), the boils of the Egyptian plague (Ex 955), and Hezekiah’s boil (2 Καὶ 207=Is 38%). It is probably a general term for a sore swelling of the skin. Those in Ex 9” are distinguished from the others because
pre
containing If, as already surmised, this disease was smallpox, this character would distinguish it from the others ; and if the last example was a plague spot, it would account for its reputedly fatal character. The botch of Dt 28% especially affected the knees and legs (see Pruner’s Krankheiten des Orients, 167). Job’s disease, however, was not a fatal one, and instead of a single tumour he was covered with sore spots from head to foot, and these were attended with an intolerable itching. The ἘΕΥΡΌΒαι word sim means an abscess, and is used in Pap. Ebers xxxviii. It was common in that country, and is therefore called the botch of Egypt (Dt 28%). It is called in Coptic shash, and mee y the *dba'bu'éth may be connected with a Coptic root meaning to be rounded or to boil up. In Papyrus Ebers ev it is said, ‘If thou findest a swelling that is connected with the beginning of uhetu it is as a bean, a sore boil on his skin, not very large, containing pus; say thou, He has hunhunt which suppurates. I shall treat this disease; make thou a remedy that shall remove the swelling and set free the matter.’ A poultice is recommended of wax, suet, bean-flour, and cer- tain plants. For the peculiare Agypti malum see Lucretius, vi. 1113, and Pliny, xxvi. 5.
Job’s body was covered with irritating ulcers (ἕλκει πονηρῷ), whose itching he endeavoured to allay by scraping himself with the rough but soft edge of a piece of unglazed earthenware. The disease distigured his face (27), so that he could not easily be recognized by his friends; his pains led him to groan continually without relief (3%), and he felt as though burnt by a fiery poison (6°), shattering his nervous system (335); the loathsome sores ae his breath fcetid (197), and were in- fested with maggots (7°). He was so helpless that he required aid to rise, and he sat among the ashes (29; LXX ἐπὶ τῆς κοπρίας, ‘on a dunghill’) to mitigate the itching. See Carey, 178; Magnus,
| 311. 161; Keil, Archdol. ii. 94. The malady is | called (181%) nyp W232 ‘the firstborn of death,’ and
330 MEDICINE
it has been supposed to have been elephantiasis (Kimchi), leprosy (Origen), smallpox (Shapter, 169), guinea-worm, which is credited, but falsely, by one writer with being called Job’s disease in Bokhara (but see Burnes, Travels into Bokhara, ii. 181, where no mention is made of Job), malig- nant pustule, or frambeesia (see Pruner, 174), etc. The characters given, however, agree better with those of the Biskra button or Oriental sore, endemic along the southern shore of the Mediterranean and in Mesopotamia. This begins in the form of papular spots, which ulcerate and become covered with crusts, under which are itchy, burning sores, slow in granulation and often multiple: as many as forty have been found on one patient. It is probably due to a parasite, is communicable by in- oculation, and very intractable even under modern treatment. It is sometimes called ‘Aleppo sore’ or ‘ Bagdad sore.’
Lazarus in Lk 16” was probably afflicted, like many of his class, with muni acide ulcers of the leg. Burckhardt says that sores on the legs are very common at Djiddah (i. 448).
Spot in Job 11, Ca 4’, Dt 32°, blemish in Ly 217, Dn 14, are apparently general terms for any skin disease. Wen in Ly 22”, used as the name of a disease of cattle, means a gall or sup- purating sore.
Among affections of the skin may be considered the bloody sweat of our Lord in the garden (Lk 224), The passage (on the question of whose genuineness see Westcott-Hort) says that His sweat was ὡσεὶ θρόμβοι αἵματος καταβαίνοντες ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν. Theophylact, Michaelis, Olshausen, and others take this to mean that His sweat dropped, as clots of blood drop from a wound. The word ὡσεί is frequently used to express a mere com- parison, as in Mt 988 λευκὸν ὡσεὶ χιών. There are no modern trustworthy cases of genuine bloody sweat; and although in some older writings com- parable instances are quoted, none of them are properly authenticated. Tissot (Traité des Nerfs, 279) records one such, and others are given in connexion with legends of stigmatization, ete., as in the cases of Catharine of Raconizio (1446), and Stephano Quinzani in Soncino (1467). Bleeding took place from the stigmatic wounds in the case of Louise Lateau in 1870 (see also Schenck, Obs. Med. iii. 458, for ancient examples, and refs. in art. ‘Stigmatization,’ Encyc. Brit. xxii. 550). It is significant that the word used is θρόμβοι, ‘clots,’ not σταγών used of blood-drops by @schylus (Agam, 1122), or σταλαγμός used both of blood (Eurip. Jon. 351, 1003) and sweat (Hippoe. Aph. 1261). Bourrut and Burot have described a red- coloured sweat in a hystero-epileptic, but the con- ditions were eras