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Jer 822 means a 'bandager.' The writer of 2 Ch 16'2 seems to take the extreme view that it was a sin to consult physicians, but saner ideas are represented in Sir 38'. Still, it may be doubted whether medical duties were not usually performed by priests (as in early Egypt), at any rate in the eariier OT times; certainly the priests had the supervision in the case of certain diseases, e.g. leprosy; and prophets also were applied to for medical advice (cf. 1 K 142 17", 2 K 4^^ 20'). And even in Sir 38" the physician is regarded as having certain priestly duties, and the connexion be-tween religion and medicine is seen in the counsel, given in that same chapter, that repentance and an offering shall precede the visit of the physician. In the NT we have St. Luke described as a physician (Col 4"), and a somewhat depreciatory remark on physicians

V'l i in M4 5", which, however, is much toned down in

■ ■ Lk 8".

It is therefore probable that up till late times medicine was in the charge of the priests, whose knowledge must have been largely traditional and empirical. The sacrificial ritual would give them some knowledge of animal morphology, but human anatomy can scarcely have existed as a science at all, since up to about A.D. 100 the ceremonial objections to touching or dis-secting the dead prevailed. Thus Bible references to facts of anatomy and physiology are very few in number. Blood was tabooed as food (Gn 9', Lv 17") — a highly important sanitary precaution, considering the facility with which blood carries microbes and parasites. A rudimentary embryology can be traced in Job 10'°, Ps 139"- " (cf. Ec 11'). But most of the physio-logical theories adverted to in the Bible are expressed in language of poetry and metaphor. On the whole, however, we may infer that the Jews (like other ancient peoples) regarded the heart as the seat of mental and moral activity (exceptions to this view are Dn 2*' 4' 7>), the reins or kidneys as the seats of impulse, aflection, conscience (Jer \V 12^, Ps 7»), the bowels as the organs of sympathy (Ps 40*, Job 30"). Proverbs about physicians seem to be alluded to in Mt 9'^, Lk 4!", Sir 38'. Except in the case of certain diseases, visita-tion of the sick is enjoined in the Talmud (though not in the OT), and enforced by Christ in Mt 25'«.

2. General terms for disease. — The words 'sick,' 'sickness,' 'sicknesses,' 'disease,' 'diseased,' 'diseases,' are of the most frequent occurrence, though they are not always used as the tr. of the same words in the original. Sometimes the term is qualified, e.g. 'sickness unto death' (Is 38'), 'sore sickness' (1 K 17"), 'evil dis-ease' (Ps 41'), 'incurable disease' (2 Ch 212'). We also have 'infirmity' three times in the OT, in Lv 12^ meaning periodic sickness, in Ps 771" as weakness from sickness, in Pr 18" as weakness generally. The term plague is sometimes used of a specifip epidemic, at other times of sickness in general. 'There are also various figurative expressions for disease, and in some places it is described as inflicted by the angel of God, e.g. 2 S 24'". In the NT, again, various Gr. words are translated by 'sickness,' 'disease,' 'infirmity'; the allusion in 1 Co 11™ may be to mental weakness, and in Ro 15' to weakness of conscience.

Some diseases, e.g. leprosy, were regarded as unclean, and those suffering from them were excluded from cities. But in general the sick were treated at home. As to the treatment we know very little. It is possible that in earlier times bleeding was not resorted to be-cause of the taboo on blood, though in later times the Jews followed the universal practice. Pr 30" has been supposed to show a knowledge of the medicinal use of leeches ; but this inference can by no meahs be drawn with any certainty from the context.

3. Specific diseases. — As a rule the Bible references to specific diseases are general and vague; and even where we find concrete mention of particular ailments, it is not always easy to decide what the exact nature of

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the maladies was. In some cases the symptoms are given, though sometimes very indefinitely.

In Dt 28^2 a group of terms is used for diseases which appear to resemble each other in the fact that they are sudden, severe, epidemic, and fatal. The first is called consumption. This may be phthisis, but more probable it means a kind of wasting fever, characterized by weakness and ansemia, often of long duration, and perhaps not unlike Mediterranean or Malta fever. The same word is used in Lv 26". The 'consumption' mentioned in Is 10*2 282* AV does not appear to be a specific disease at all. This is followed in Deut. by (ever; the same word in Lv 26" is rendered 'burning ague' by the AV, and the LXX translates it by the Greek word for 'jaundice.' Its symptoms are given in the passage of Lv.; it may be a sort of malarial fever which occurs in certain parts of Palestine, and is occa-sionally accompanied by jaundice. This may be the disease alluded to in Jn i'" and Lk 4", both instances at Capernaum. Then comes inflammation (Dt 282' EV, LXX ague). This may be ague, or even typhoid, which is common in Palestine. Next we have 'ex-treme burning' (Dt 28^2 AV, RV 'fiery heat,' LXX 'irritation'); either some unspecified kind of irritating disease, or erysipelas ; but this latter disease is not of frequent occurrence in Palestine. The 'sword' (Dt 2822 XV, RV 'drought') may be a form of disease, or more probably, like the next two words, may refer to a destruction of the earth's fruits. The same word 'sword' in Zee 11" seems, from the symptoms de-scribed, to refer to a wasting paralysis. The descrip-tions given in Ps 39", Zee 1412, Lv 26", Ezk 242' 33'», Ps 38' are largely figurative; but the imagery may be taken from an attack of confluent smallpox, with its disfiguring and repulsive effects. It seems highly probable that smallpox was a disease of antiquity; perhaps the sixth plague of Egypt was of this character.

Allusions to pestilence or plague are exceedingly common in the OT. Thus at least four outbreaks took place among the Israelites during their wanderings in the wilderness, viz. Nu 11" (it has been suggested that the quails here mentioned may have come from a plague-stricken district) 14" 16*' 25' (in this last case it may have been communicated by the Moabites). For other references to plague, cf. 2 S 24", 2 Ch 21", Ps 91'- «, Jer 21" 42", perhaps 2 K 19". The bubonic plague was the periodic scourge of Bible lands. It has but a short period of incubation, spreads rapidly and generally, and is very fatal, death ensuing in a large proportion of cases, and nearly always within three days. No precautions against it are prescribed in the Levitical Code, because it was regarded as a special visitation of God. As the plague is not endemic in Palestine, the Jews probably incurred it by mixing with their neigh-bours. The emerods of 1 S 5« were tumours of a definite shape, and may therefore be the buboes of the plague. The tumours appeared somewhere in the lower part of the abdomen. Some have supposed them to be hemor-rhoids, by comparison with the phrase in Ps 78", but this is doubtful. The same word occurs in Dt 282'.

Of diseases in the digestive organs the casein 2 Ch 21" is one of chronic dysentery in its worst form. That in Ac 28" (AV bloody flux) is also dysentery, which is very prevalent in Malta. The mention of hsemorrhage in this case shows that it was of the ulcerative or gangrenous type, which is very dangerous.

The results of intemperance are mentioned in Pr 232«ii., Is 19'<.

The liver. The Hebrew physicians regarded many disorders as due to an alteration in the bile (cf. Job 16", Pr 72', La 2"). The disorders alluded to in 1 Ti 62» were probably some kind of dyspepsia, apparently pro-ducing lack of energy (cf. 1 Ti 4"-"); the symptoms are often temporarily relieved by the use of alcohol. In Ps 69' allusion is made to the dryness of throat pro-duced by mental emotions of a lowering character;