The author is widely known as one well equipped with medical knowledge and well versed in Hebrew philology and the Old Testament, which term he uses as synonymous with "the Bible." The work cites or quotes a number of specific instances, intended to exhibit ancient Hebraic knowledge of the heart and blood functioning—the first eight chapters being on the sudden deaths of Nabal, Eli, Sisera, and others, the remaining 10 having such interesting titles as Syncope, Angina Pectoris, Pathologic Anatomy, and Bones as Blood Forming Organs. However, in the great majority, the interpretations are found to be so far fetched that they carry but little conviction as to the meaning assigned to them. Jael's murder of Sisera, for instance, is thought to have taken place when he was comatose from a supposed stroke induced by a combination of fatigue, overindulgence in food, and passion. (The author here cites four passages