The diseases of the Bible / by Risdon Bennett.

  • James Risdon Bennett
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

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

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    worm often abounds. There is then certainly no im- probability in the supposition that the Israelites, when suffering from drought, as we know they did, would be likely, from seizing on any water, however foul, to become infested with the Filaria, which from its general form might be spoken of as a serpent, and denominated fiery from its inflammatory and painful effects. And it is certainly more easy to understand how, in this way, large numbers of people should be destroyed rather than by serpent bites in the ordinary way in which they are inflicted. Serpents exist in comparatively small numbers in any locality, and are generally easily seen and guarded against, and whilst their mortal effects are rapidly in- duced, they are not generally attended by much pain and inflammation, but rather by stupor and depression. ' The Filaria Medincnsis] says a recent writer,1 ' is met with throughout the western half of the Arabian peninsula, from the most northern part of the Hedjaz province to Aden, and both in the burning sandy plains and mountainous districts. Of 3500 to 4000 Turkish soldiers of an expeditionary force visiting for four months the country of Djebel Chahare in 1877, no less than 2500 men were attacked, and there was an average of four worms in each man, whilst some had 10, 20, 30, or more. The exhausted soldiers on the march got them from drinking of the stagnant pools. The length of the worms was from 4 to 48 inches.5 How far Kuchenmeister's view is admissible or satis- factory, we leave to the reader to determine. But whatever opinion may be held as to the particular creature through whose agency the people died, it cannot affect the more important part of the record, 1 Sambolsky, Du Ver de Medine, 1879.
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