BLOODY SWEAT. According to Luke xxii. 44, our Lord's sweat was ' as great drops of blood falling to the ground.' Michaelis takes the passage to mean nothing more than that the drops were as /iv:cc as falling drops of blood (A umerk. fur Unge lehde, ad loc.) This, which also appears to be a common explanation, is liable to some objection. For, if an ordinary observer compares a fluid which he is accustomed to see colourless, to blood, which is so well known and so well characterized by its colour, and does not specify any particular point of resemblance, he would more naturally he understood to allude to the colour, since it is the most prominent and characteristic quality.
There are several cases recorded by the older medical writers, under the title of bloody sweat. With the exception of one or two instances, not above suspicion of fraud, they have, however, all been cases of general Iremorrhagic disease, in which blood has flowed from different parts of the body, such as the nose, eyes, ears, lungs, stomach, and bowels, and, lastly, from various parts of the skin. When blood oozes from the skin, it must reach the external surface through orifices in the epidermis, which have been produced by rupture, or, we must suppose that it has been extravasated into the sweat-ducts. But, even in this latter case, we must no more consider haemorrhage of the skin to be a modification of the finiction of sweating, than bleeding from the nose to be a modification of the secretion of mucus. The blood is simply mixed with the sweat, precisely in the same way as, when spit up from the lungs, it is mixed with mucus and saliva in passing through the air-tubes and mouth. It is, therefore, incorrect to suppose that haemorrhage from the skin indicates a state of body at all analogous to that which occasions sweating. If this distinction had been clearly un derstood, and clearly stated by medical writers, it would have been seen at once how far their ex perience went to illustrate the case before us.
The greater number of cases described by authors were observed in women and children, and sometimes in infants. Mental anxiety we have found mentioned as a cause or as a concomi tant symptom only in one case, which will be noticed below. The case of a young lady who was afflicted with cutaneous hemorrhage is de tailed by Mesaporiti in a letter to Valisneri. She is noticed to have been cheerful, although she must have suffered greatly from debility and febrile symptoms (Phil. Trans. No. 303, p. 2114). The case of an infant, only three months old, affected with the same disease, is related by Du Gard (Phil. Trans. No. 109, p. 193). A similar case is described in the Nov. Act. Acad. Nat. Cur. torn. iv. p. 193. See also Eph. Acad. Nal. Cur. obs. 41; and, for other references, Copeland's Diet. of Med. ii. p. 72. Where hxmorrhagic diathesis exists, muscular exertion is a powerful exciting cause of all kinds of haemorrhage, and must likewise give rise to the cutaneous form of the disease. A most remarkable case of the kind, occurring in a horse, is mentioned by Dr. Cope land. His friend Dr. W. Hutchinson had a fine Arabian horse, whose sweat was sanguineous after moderate exertion, and almost pure blood upon violent exertion (Did. of c.) Bloomfield (Greek Test. note on Luke xxii. 44)
says that Aristotle adduces a case of bloody sweat from extreme agitation, in his Hirt. Amin. iii. 19. This statement, however, is incorrect. Aristotle is merely speaking of the blood in a general way ; and says, si sanguis immodice humescit, morbus infestat : sic enim in speciem saniei diluitur et adeo screscit, ut jam nonnulli sudore cruento exun darint.' There is no allusion made to any case, nor a word said about extreme agitation. There is, however, a case of this kind recorded by Durius, a German physician (Minya. cur. Ephe mera. p• 354, obs. 179). A student was put into prison, propter insolentias nocturnas et alia ten tata,' when he was seized with such fear and agita tion that drops of blood burst forth, here and there, from his hands, chest, and arms. Durius was ordered by the magistrate, who was informed of the circumstance, to visit the prisoner ; and he witnessed all that had been related to him. The prisoner was of course immediately released, and was restored to his former state of health as soon as the cause of his anxiety had been removed. If this was really a fact, the student must have been affected with hemorrhagic disease, or have had a very strong tendency to it : but the story does not deserve the slightest credence. The author does not appear to have imagined, for a moment, that it was a case of imposition, or that it might be after wards suspected to be such. His account is, there fore, confined to the bare statement of the fact, and affords no evidence of the correctness of his obser vation. It is highly improbable that a student of such habits should feel great alarm at being put in prison; while nothing is more conceivable than that he should attempt to impose on the credulity of his attendants, in order to obtain his release, and that he should even succeed in deceiving a phy sician. Medical experience abounds in cases of suc cessful imposition of a far more extraordinary nature (Bartholinus, Hist. Anat. mr., cent. i. hist. 52).
While, then, on the one hand, experience teaches that cutaneous hemorrhage, when it does occur, is the result of disease, or, at any rate, of a very peculiar idiosyncracy, and is in no way indicative of the state of the mind, we have, on the other, daily experience and the accumulated testimony of ages to prove that intense mental emotion and pain produce on the body effects even severer in degree, but of a very different nature. It is familiar to all that terror will blanch the hair, occasion moment ary paralysis, fainting, convulsions, melancholy, imbecility, and even sudden death. Excessive grief and joy will produce some of the worst of these. Sweat is caused by fear, and by bodily pain ; but not by sorrow, which excites no secretion except tears.
It is very evident, then, that medical experience does not bear at all upon the words of St. Luke. The circumstances connected with our Lord's suf ferings in the garden must be considered by them selves, without any reference to actual observation; otherwise, we shall be in danger of rendering a statement, which may be easily received on its own grounds, obscure and contradictory.
It may be remarked that the passage in question only occurs in St. Luke, and is omitted in the two oldest MSS., A. and B., and three others. W. A. N.