In Deut. xxviii, 65 it is possible that a palpitation of the heart is intended to be spoken of (comp. Gen. xlv, 26). In Mark ix, 17 (comp. Luke ix, 38) we have an apparent case of epilepsy, shown especially in the foam- ing, falling, wallowing, and similar violent symptoms mentioned ; this might easily be a form of demoniacal manifestation. The case of extreme hunger recorded in 1 Sam. xiv was merely the result of exhaustive fatigue ; but it is remarkable that the bulimia of which Xeno- phon speaks (A?iab. iv, 5, 7), was remedied by an appli- cation in w^hich " honey" (comp. 1 Sam. xiv, 27) was the chief ingredient.
Besides the common injuries of wounding, bruising, striking out e3'e, tooth, etc., we have in Exod. xxi, 22 the case of miscarriage produced by a blow, push, etc., damaging the foetus.
The plague of " boils and blains" is not said to have been fatal to man, as the murrain preceding was to cat- tle ; this alone would seem to contradict the notion of Shapter {Medica *S'«tva,p. 113),thatthe disorder in ques- tion was small-pox, which, wherever it has appeared, until mitigated by vaccination, has been fatal to a great part, perhaps a majority of those seized. The small-pox also generjill}' takes some days to pronounce and ma- ture, which seems opposed to the Mosaic account. The expression of Exod. ix, 10, a " boil" flourishing, or ebul- lient with blains, may perhaps be a disease analogous to phlegmonous erysipelas, or even common erysipelas, which is often accompanied by vesications such as the word " blains" might fitly describe. This is Dr. Robert Sim's opinion. On comparing, however, the means used to produce the disorder (Exod. ix, 8), an analogy is per- ceptible to what is called " bricklayer's itch," and there- fore to leprosy. A disease involving a white spot break- ing forth from a boil related to leprosy, and clean or un- clean according to symptoms specified, occmrs under the general locus of leprosy (Lev. xiii, 18-23).
The " withered hand" of Jeroboam (1 Kuigs xiii, 4-6),
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and of the man (^latt. xii, 10-13 ; comp. Luke vi, 10), is such an effect as is known to follow from the oblitera- tion of the main artery of any member, or from paraly- sis of the principal nerve, either through disease or through injurj'. A case with a sjTnptom exactly par- allel to that of Jeroboam is mentioned in the life of (ia- briel, an Arab physician. It was that of a woman whose han(i had become rigid in the act of swinging, and re- mained in the extended posture. The most remarkable feature in the case, as related, is the remedy, which con- sisted in alarm acting on the nerv'es, inducing a sudden and s]io!itaneous effort to use the limb — an effort which, like that of the dumb son of Croesus (Herod, i, 85), was paradoxically :^uccessfid. The case of the willow's son restored iiy IClisha (2 Kings W, 19), was probably one of sunstroke. The disease of Asa " in his feet'" (Schmidt, Bibli.irhi'r Med. iii, 5, 2), which attacked him in his old age (1 Kings xv, 23; 2 Chron. xvi, 12), and became ex- ceeding great, may have been either ademu, dropsy, or poddijra, gout. The former is common in aged persons, in whom, owing to the dilHculty of the return upwards of the sluggisli blood, its watery part stays in the feet. The latter, though rare in the East at present, is men- tioned by the Talmudists {Sota/i, 10 a, and Sanhedrin, 48 h), and there is no reason why it may not have been known in Asa's time. It occurs in Hippocr. Aphor, vi, Prof/nost. 15; Celsus, iv, 24; Aretaeus, Moth, Chron, ii, 12, and' other ancient writers.
In 1 Mace, vi, 8, occurs a mention o£ "sickness of grief;" in Ecclus. xxxvii, 30, of sickness caused by ex- cess, which require only a passing mention. The dis- ease of Nel>uchadnezzar has been viewed by Jahn as a mental and purely subjective malady. It is not easy to see how tliis satisfies the plain, emphatic statement of Dan. iv, 33, which seems to include, it is true, mental derangement, but to assert a degraded bodily state to some extent, and a corresponding change of liabits. The " eagles' feathers" and " birds' claws" are probably used only in illustration, not necessarily as describing a new tyi)c to which the hair, etc., approximated. (Comp. the .simile of Psa. ciii, 5, and that of 2 Kings v, 14.) We may regaril it as Jlead {Med. Sacr. vol. vii), following Burton's A ixttomy of M(lancliohj, docs, as a species oi' the melancholy known as Lycauthropia (Paidiis yEgin. iii, 16; Avicenna, iii, 1, 5, 22). Persons so affected wan- dor like wolves in sepulchres by night, and imitate the howling of a wolf or a dog. Further, there are well-at- tested accounts of wild or half-wild himian creatures, of either sex, who have lived as beasts, losing human con- sciousness, and acquiring a superhuman ferocity, activ- ity, and swiftness. Either the lycanthropic patients or these latter may furnish a partial analogy to Nebu- chadnezzar in regard to the various points of modified outward appearance and habits ascribed to him. Nor •would it seem imjiossible that a sustained lycauthropia might produce this latter condition.