"Dog Days and Old Testament Diease"

Sunday afternoon I spotted an animal on the side of the road.  I had a few moments to kill, so I decided I would venture into uncharted area of the southwest corner of Marengo County Alabama.  After a few miles of beautiful scenery and no houses, I saw this creature trying to hide on the right-of-way of the county road.  When I got close enough to see the animal, it was a mangy dog.  The dog looked as though, “I have the mange, do not look at me, I’m unclean.”

As a kid, I saw several dogs that had the mange.  When we had one, daddy usually poured burnt motor oil on it.  Sometimes it cured it, but most times it did not.  You might ask why we didn’t take them to the vet.  Well, daddy could not afford to take us to the doctor little on take a mangy dog.

My only experience with a mangy dog was with a Dalmatian named Pierce.  Pierce was officially Midnight Caller Pierce according his registration papers.  My kids acquired Pierce from a family that lived in the town of Jemison.  They gave us Pierce because they did not want him to stay penned.

Pierce could not stand to be in a pen.  His owners had to keep Pierce on a lease.  He developed a fungus in his throat from choking himself in an effort to escape.  Since we lived in the country, we turned Pierce loose and gave him free range.  It was not long that Pierce’s throat healed.

Pierce was a beautiful dog.  As with the whole Hopper family, Pierce gained weight.  He had a shiny coat and a big chest.  He loved the kids and was very playful.  The only bad habit he had was that he would chase cows.  He did not hurt them.  He liked to torture them with his barking and nipping at their heels.

One day I noticed that Pierce’s coat looked strange.  I realized that he had the mange.  It did not take long before he looked horrible.  I decided to talk with some friends who were coon hunters

I finally ran into “Buck” who was an avid coon hunter and had owned several expensive coon dogs.  When I told him about Pierce, Buck said that he had several dogs with the mange and that his home remedy would cure it.  When he told me the remedy, it almost sounded like something out of Biblical times.

He said that I needed to buy a pound of sulfur, get a gallon of cooking oil used to fry fish, and find a piece of rope.  Buck said tie Pierce to a light or electrical pole and make a paste using the sulfur and fishy smelling and tasting cooking oil.  He said coat Pierce all over with the paste.  He said be sure not to tie him close to anything where he could rub off the paste.  Pierce was to eat the sulfur.

I was curious about the procedure because it seemed odd.  I asked Buck why.  Buck told me that fleas caused the mange and that the fungus and fever they created was on the inside of Pierce.  The sulfur would kill the fungus.  The fish flavored cooking oil gave the sulfur a taste that Pierce would lick.  It sounded strange, but I tried it anyway.  Pierce looked funny with his yellow paste coat.  After a couple of days, I could see improvement to Pierce’s coat.  In no time, Pierce had a healthy shiny coat.

After seeing the mangy dog in the Nicholsville-Putnam area, I thought about the folks in the Old Testament who were covered with something like the mange, called scall, or what is known as scabies.  Those folks would see the priest who would give the “Buck like” instructions for a remedy.

The book of Leviticus describes scabies-like symptoms, which sounds like the mange.  Paintings from ancient Egypt also depict the scabies mite. Aristotle (384 to 322 B.C.) also spoke of scabies.

Scabies are tiny eight-legged mites that burrow in the skin of their hosts. The mites live for 24 to 36 hours spreading through skin-to-skin contact and deposit eggs in your skin.

In recent years, there has been an increase in scabies and bedbugs.  One statistic said 93% of households have bedbugs.  The cure was isolation in Biblical times.

If a man or woman have a plague upon the head or the beard; Then the priest shall see the plague: and, behold, if it be in sight deeper than the skin; and there be in it a yellow thin hair; then the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a dry scall, even a leprosy upon the head or beard. And if the priest look on the plague of the scall, and, behold, it be not in sight deeper than the skin, and that there is no black hair in it; then the priest shall shut up him that hath the plague of the scall seven days: And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the plague: and, behold, if the scall spread not, and there be in it no yellow hair, and the scall be not in sight deeper than the skin; he shall be shaven, but the scall shall he not shave; and the priest shall shut up him that hath the scall seven days more: And in the seventh day the priest shall look on the scall: and, behold, if the scall be not spread in the skin, nor be in sight deeper than the skin; then the priest shall pronounce him clean: and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean. But if the scall spread much in the skin after his cleansing; then the priest shall look on him: and, behold, if the scall be spread in the skin, the priest shall not seek for yellow hair; he is unclean. But if the scall be in his sight at a stay, and that there is black hair grown up therein; the scall is healed, he is clean: and the priest shall pronounce him clean (Leviticus 13:29-37 KJV).