Diseases of the Bible / by Risdon Bennett.

  • James Risdon Bennett
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Diseases of the Bible / by Risdon Bennett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by University of Bristol Library. The original may be consulted at University of Bristol Library.

    138/152 (page 134)
    much discussion as to the particular species by whose bite much people died, without, however, any trust- worthy decision having been arrived at. Some have considered it to be the bi\j/ds, one of the Colubers, whose bite is attended by burning pain and inflammatory eruption and great thirst. There is no true flying serpent, although some have the faculty of darting from a distance at the object of their attack. But there is a species of Haye or hooded serpent, which has the power of distending the hood in the form of wings at the side of the head. This or an allied species of serpent is met with at the Cape, and called the ' Pof or Spooch Adder.' In some of the symbolical pictures of the Egyptians there are serpents represented with wings like a bird. The specific term ' fiery ' might very well be applied to several serpents met with in the desert of Arabia, whose bite is followed by burning pain, and one of these is supposed to be the T]^!? of Numbers xxi, the o^et? rov<i Oavarovvras or deadly serpents of the LXX, which can dart from branch to branch of a tree, or fling them- selves to the ground. Now Kiichenmeister contends that the Hebrew words rendered ' fiery serpents' ought to have the article before each word ol oipeis oi crepac^iii, and that as seraphim is derived from ^I^j it merely signifies that which burns (' is qui comburit'). He therefore thinks it is clear that a ' species of animal is referred to, which is dis- tinguished by the inflammability of its bite, or generally by the inflammation which its presence occasions.' He further maintains that the mode in which □^D'^fe^n D'^ipn^n annoyed the people is de- scribed in the seventh verse: ' Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have