TABLE 1: SUMMARY OF DIFFERENT EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED FOR THE TEN PLAGUES OF EGYPT
(After John S Marr and Curtis D Malloy in “An Epidemiologic Analysis of the Ten Plagues of Egypt”, Caduceus, Spring 1996, Vol 12 No 1)
|
Plague/Author |
Water turns to blood |
Plague of frogs |
Plague of lice |
Plague of flies |
Murrain of cattle |
|
Bryant (1810) |
“Tainted and polluted streams” |
Frogs and their death are emlematic of a prophetic influence |
Lice: “vermin . . . pediculi” |
(House?) flies representing “Zebub” |
“The distemper” |
|
Blanc (1890) |
|
Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) infected and killed frogs |
Flies transmitting anthrax |
Flies transmitting anthrax |
Anthrax |
|
Velikovsky (1950) |
Red meteorite dust from a comet |
|
|
|
Secondary skin infections from comet dusts |
|
Hort (1957) |
Red silt and
flagellated protozoa Euglena
sanguina, Haematococcus pluvialis |
Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) infected and killed frogs |
Mosquitoes (Culex species) |
Stable flies (Stomoxys calcitrans) transmitting the fifth and sixth plagues |
Anthrax |
|
Schoental (1980) |
Microfungi and Fusarium roseum contaminating waters |
Frogs killed by dinoflagellates producing soluble poisons |
“Vermin” |
“Flies” |
Mycotoxins |
|
Schmidt (1990) |
Dead fish |
Frogs |
|
Horseflies |
|
|
Jacoby (1990) |
Nile waters made undrinkable secondary to dead fish |
Frogs |
“Sand fleas” not gnats |
“An insect akin to a winged ant” |
|
|
Hoyte (1993) |
Dinoflagellates Gymnodiuium and Glenodinium (unnamed species) |
Dehydration and dessication killed escaping frogs |
“Midges” (Culex antennatus) |
Stable flies (Stomoxys
calcitrans) (See Hort) |
Surra (debab) (Trypanasoma evansi) |
|
Ceccarelli (1994) |
Dinoflagellates Gymnodiuium and Glenodinium (after Hoyte) |
Frogs |
“Midges” (Culex
antennatus) (After Hoyte) |
Combined
streptococcal/ staphylococcal infections Babesiosis |
Babesiosis (Babesia bigemini) |
|
Marr and Malloy (1996) |
Freshwater cyanobacteria causing river to turn red and killing fish |
Frogs leave deoxygenated waters and die, contributing to third plague |
Culicoides appear from pupae hatching in sand (Hoyte), transmitting the fifth plague |
Stable flies (Hort and Hoyte), transmitting the sixth plague |
African horse sickness; Bluetongue; Epizootic haemorrhaghic disease |
|
Plague/Author |
Plague of boils and blains |
Plague of hail |
Plague of locusts |
Plague of darkness |
Death of firstborn |
|
Bryant (1810) |
|
“Thunder, hail, fire” destroy crops |
Locusts caused famines |
“A preternatural state of night” |
Confluence of God’s will |
|
Blanc (1890) |
Anthrax |
Hail |
Locusts |
Locust swarms |
Anthrax |
|
Velikovsky (1950) |
Boils secondary to cometary dusts, blisters from flaming naptha |
Dust, gravel and burning naptha from a comet |
|
Cinder dust from a comet |
An earthquake triggered by cometary impact |
|
Hort (1957) |
Anthrax |
Hailstorms destroyed flax and barley but not wheat or spelt |
Locusts |
Sandstorms (khamsin) |
Famine secondary to destruction of wheat and spelt harvests |
|
Schoental (1980) |
Secondary
bacterial infection due to immuno- suppression by trichothecenes |
Hail |
|
|
Mycotoxin- induced death from mouldy feeds |
|
Schmidt (1990) |
|
|
Locusts |
|
|
|
Jacoby (1990) |
“Herpes-like infection”, “Bubonic infection”, “Inflammation of sexual organs”? |
Hail |
Locusts |
Darkness? |
|
|
Hoyte (1993) |
Ecthyma (Group A haemolytic Streptococcus pyogenes) |
Crops ruined by hailstorms |
Locusts ruined crops |
Sandstorms |
Typhoid fever and salmonelloses (S. Typhi and enteriditis) |
|
Ceccarelli (1994) |
Babesiosis (Babesia bigemini) |
Hail |
|
|
|
|
Marr and Malloy (1996) |
Glanders (farcy) Pseudomonas mallei |
Hail destroying established crops and dampening stored foods |
Schistocerca gregaria eat all remaining vegetation, including sprouts and seedlings |
Sandstorms (khamsin) cover existing food stands and stored food supplies |
Mycotoxins specific to stored grains preferentially killed first to access store |