Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/678

 HYSSOP

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HYSSOP

it is impossible for me to understand on what scientific grounds is founded this resurrection of the old materi- alistic view of the world that had its first great expres- sion from Epicurus and Lucretius. Nothing that 1 can see justifies it, and there is no reason to think that it will continue to hold domination over men's minds."

In 1880 there was a magnificent celebration of Hyrtl's seventieth birthday, when messages of con- gratulation were sent to him from all the universities of the world. After retiring from his professorship he continued to do good work, his last publication being on Arabic and Hebraic elements in anatomy. On the morning of 17 July, 1894, he was found dead in bed, with his arms crossed on hLs breast. His principal works are " Lehrbuch der .Vnatomie des Menschen " (Prague, 18-16); "Handbuch der topographischen Anatomie", 2 vols., 8vo (Vienna, 1853); "Handbuch der Zergliederungskunst" (Vienna, 1860). His monograph for the reform of anatomical terminology "Onomatologia Anatomica" (Vienna, 1880), attracted widespread attention.

Bardki.eben, Biographic Sketch in Deutsche Med. Wochen- sehrifl {ls'J4i, no. xx. 619. A good sketch in Englisli appeared in The Lancet (London, 1S94), II, 170.

James J. W.ilsh.

Hyssop (31fN; Sept. iir(ronro!), a plant which is re- ferred to in a few passages of Holy Writ, and which cannot be identified with certainty at the present day. Its existence in Egypt is proved by Ex., xii, 22, wherein Moses is represented as bidding the elders of Israel to take a bunch of hyssop and to sprinkle with it the blood of the paschal lamb upon the lintel and the side posts of the doors of their dwellings. In the wil- derness hyssop was also ready at hand, as can be in- ferred from Ex., xxiv, 8, completed by Heb., ix, 19, according to which Israel's great lawgiver sprinkled the Hebrews with hyssop dippetl in the blood of vic- tims, at the sealing of the old covenant between Yah- wch and His people. The references to hyssop con- tained in the Mosaic ritual show clearly that it was a common plant in the peninsula of Sinai and in the land of C'hanaan, and disclose its principal uses among the Hebrews. Thus, it is with hyssop that the lilood of a bird offered in sacrifice is to be sprinkled for the cleansing of a man or a house affected with leprosy (Lev., xiv, 4-7, 49-51); it is with it, too, that the sprinkling of the water of purification must be made at the cleansing of a tent, a person, or a vessel polluted by the touch of a dead body (Num., xix, 8). Besides being thus used as an instrument in the act of sprink- ling, hyssop was employed as one of the elements to be burned in the preparation of the water of purification itself (Num., xix, 6). It is not therefore surprising to find that this manifold and intimate connexion of hyssop with the various purifications of the Old Law led the Psalmist (Ps. 1 [Heb. li], 9) to rcgarti the sprinkling with hyssop as sjTnbolical of a thorough purification of the heart, a view which the Catholic Church has made her own in the ceremony of the Aspergcs which usually begins the solemn offering of Holy Mass. Nor is it surprising to find that this same connexion of hyssop with the various cleansings

of the Mosaic Law suggested to many writers the identification of that plant with the Hyssopus offici- nalis, or common hyssop, with which they were particu- larly acquainted, and the detergent properties of which they not unnaturally thought had induced the Hebrew legislator to select it as especially fit for the purificatory services in Israel. However widely re- ceived in the past, such identification is now com- monly rejected for this reason, among others, that the Hyssopus officinalis appears to have been tmknown in ancient Syria and Egypt. The plant, which at the present day, is con.sidered as more proliably the hyssop of the Mosaic ritual, is the Origanum tnaru. Like the Hyssopus officinalis it belongs to the family of the labiatac, has aromatic and detergent properties, and can be easily made into a bunch for purposes of sprinkling. The following are some of its particular claims to be considered as the liyssop spoken of in the Old Testament. In the first place, it is to the Origa- nnm — not to the Hyssopus off<rinalis — that all an- cient tradition points when referring to the hyssop of the Scriptures. In the next place, its Egyptian name of supho, is clearly allied to the -\ramaic zufo and the Hebrew'ezob. Lastly, the Orijoni/m maru grows on the walls of all the terraces throughout Palestine and Syria. This last claim in favour of the identification of the hyssop of the Old Testament with the Origanum maru, is in distinct harmony with III Kings, iv, Xi (Heb. I Ivings, iv, 33) where we read that Solomon " treated about trees from the cedar that is in Libanus, unto the hyssop that cometh out of the wall". The chief difficulty in the way of this identification is drawn from John, xix, 29, where it is stated that some of those present at Christ's Passion " putting a sponge full of vinegar about (or rather: upon) hyssop, put it to his mouth". It is oftentimes supposed that the stalk of the Origanum maru would be too short and too slender for the purposes described in this passage, and that another plant with a longer and firmer stem, for instance, the caper-plant {ca/iparis sjiinosa) is the one meant by the Fourth Evangelist. This supposi- tion, however, does not appear necessary to many commentators. They think that the cross whereon Jesus lay was not such a lofty object as is assumed b\' the opponents of the identification, and that in conse- quence the Origanum maru, some 40 or .50 centimetres in length, and undoubtedly near at hand on Calvary, was used either alone, or together with a reed (ef. Matt., xxvii, 29; Mark, xv, 30) to carry the sponge dipped in vinegar to the lips of the Saviour. Numer- ous other plants, more or less akin to the Origanum maru are also regarded, and indeed with some proba- bility, as the hyssop spoken of in Holy Writ.

(Catholic authors are marked with an asterisk.) Gesenius, ThesauriiS linguer hcbr(rw et chaldatr, I (Leipzig, 1S29): RoYLE. On the Hyssop of Scripture in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, VIII; Trlstbam, Xalural History of the liiliie (2nd ed.. London, 1S6S); Fauna and Flora of Palestine (London, 188.5): Fll.l-lON,* Atlas d'histoirc naturcUe dc In Bililc (Lyons, ISS4): Groser, Trees and Plants Mentioned in the liil>lc (.JMudon, 1895): Fonck,' Strcifztifie durch die biblischc Flora (Frpihnrg in) Br., 1900): I.EVE.syuE.* in ViGOUHoux. Diet, de la Bilile, s. v. (Taris, 1901): Le Camos,* Life of Christ, tr., Ill (New York, 1908),

Francis E. Gigot.