xxxviii, and elsewhere.

For the Hebrew view of the same interference by the Almighty, see especially Numbers xi, 4-34; also xvi, 49; I Samuel xxiv; also Psalm cvi, 29; also the well-known texts in Zechariah and Revelation.

For St.
Paul's declaration that the gods of the heathen are devils, see I Cor.
x, 20.

As to the earlier origin of the plague in Egypt, see Haeser, 'Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin und der epidemischen Krankheiten, Jena, 1875-'82, vol.iii, pp.

15 et seq.
Moreover, comets, falling stars, and earthquakes were thought, upon scriptural authority, to be "signs and wonders"-- evidences of the Divine wrath, heralds of fearful visitations; and this belief, acting powerfully upon the minds of millions, did much to create a panic-terror sure to increase epidemic disease wherever it broke forth.
The main cause of this immense sacrifice of life is now known to have been the want of hygienic precaution, both in the Eastern centres, where various plagues were developed, and in the European towns through which they spread.