Lazarismus, as it is called today, is a disease resulting from the consumption of garbanzo beans as the principle ingredient in one's diet. The effect after some weeks of this diet is to render the victim almost completely paralyzed. This was not historically uncommon in the middle east and recently occurred to large numbers of people in P.O.W. camps in that part of the world during WWII. Lazarus' medical chart, had he been visited by a competent modern day physician, would probably indicate a pathological preference for humus.