4. Hort's anthrax theory
Anthrax occurs in soil, not in the Nile. It does not infect aquatic animals like fish or frogs (whether dead or alive). In fact, some of the frogs returned to, and remained in, the Nile when God lifted the plague Exodus 8:11. Anthrax infects land animals which graze on grass contaminated by anthrax spores in the soil.
5. Her biting flies
Biting flies do not spread anthrax to either animals or humans, nor do they feed on dead animals. In the medical-veterinary history of anthrax there are ‘no known cases of anthrax-infected fly bites of humans, cattle or sheep anywhere in the world’
6. The Nile in flood
Hort depends on flood waters to breed her mosquitoes and biting flies, as well as to provide the widespread coating of red mud/dust on the land that she claims was blown aloft to cause the plague of darkness. However, Exodus makes no mention of flood waters during the plagues. On the contrary, Moses meets Pharaoh on the banks of the Nile Exodus 7:15, and the Egyptians dig along the Nile to search for drinking water Exodus 7:24. When a river is at flood stage, it is referred to as being "out of banks". In other words the water has extended beyond the boundaries of its banks, hence flooded. Had the Nile been at flood stage, Moses and Pharaoh could not have met on the banks of the Nile. These are not descriptions of a flooded river.
7. Her desert storm of red dust
Hort depends on flooding for her plagues of frogs, flies and locusts, with more water added from the hailstorm. She does not explain how the khamsin dried out this massive saturation of the alleged red mud coating so that it could have turned into dust and been blown aloft in just a few hours. The Egyptians would have been used to desert storms. Pharaoh would hardly have been influenced by one, even if it lasted three days.
8. Hort’s ‘first fruits’ instead of ‘firstborn’
It is manifestly disingenuous of Hort to claim a mistranslation of one Hebrew word in the biblical account to substantiate her naturalistic theory, and then for her to disregard the two-and-a-half chapters of the same source document Exodus 11:1-13:16 that describe in great detail the death of the firstborn of the Egyptians and the saving of the firstborn of the Israelites.