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 COHEN 
 
 HYGIENE AND IVIED 1C INE 
 OF THE TALMUD 
 
 Univerj 
 Soui 
 Lil
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE HYGIENE 
 AND MEDICINE 
 OF THE TALMUD. 
 
 A Lecture Delivered at the 
 
 Medical Department, University of Texas, 
 
 Galveston, Texas, by 
 
 RABBI HENRY COHEN. 
 
 Reprinted from 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS RECORD, 
 Vol. Ill, No. 4.
 
 The Library 
 
 alifornia. Los Angeles 
 
 From the T 
 Co 1
 
 THE HYGIENE AND MEDICINE OF THE 
 TALMUD, 
 
 [A lecture delivered at the Medical Department, University of Texas, 
 Galveston, Texas, by Rabbi Henry Cohen.] 
 
 For the purpose of this article, it will suffice to say, that the 
 Talmud, which includes the Mishna, or Oral Law, and the Gemara, 
 or Commentary, literally "the completion" of the Mishna, which 
 isr itself is a commentary on the Pentateuch, or Written Law, is the 
 compendium of Jewish doctrine, containing the history, thought, 
 7^> manners and customs of the people from every standpoint during 
 ^ o the better part of a thousand years between the return from the 
 ;: T~~ Babylonian Captivity and the fifth century A. C. E. The Mishna 
 i^ is written in Hebrew not the pure Hebrew of the Prophets, but 
 **> a language understood of the people and the Gemara in Ara- 
 maic, the language of the Jewish populace of those later days; 
 while the contact with Western nations introduced many Greek 
 and Latin words into the vernacular. 
 
 There are two recensions of the Talmud, the Babylonian, which 
 is the more complete, and the Palestinian, which is the earlier; the 
 former is at least four times as full as the latter. 
 
 The Babylonian Talmud contains thirty-six treatises under the 
 six general heads of the Mishna, and is published in twelve folio 
 volumes, the pagination of which, to facilitate reference, is uni- 
 form in all editions. This work of a millenium of the manners 
 and morals of the Jewish people must naturally touch upon the 
 inmost life of those whose history it portrays, and therefore, in 
 the exposition of the Written Law incidental to which is the 
 ethical and legal philosophy of the Rabbis and the post-biblical 
 history of the Israelites and their contemporaries are also num- 
 berless references to hygiene and medicine. The result of an 
 inquiry into this latter branch will convey an idea of the import- 
 ance in which medico-sanitation was held at that time, as well as 
 the Talmudic conception of dietetics, anatomy, physiology, surgery, 
 pathology, and therapeutics. 
 
 Inasmuch as the Talmud in its entirety is a commentary on the 
 Mosaic Code, it will be pertinent to review the Hygiene of the 
 
 203S732
 
 2 
 
 Pentateuch. The Book of Leviticus is replete with commands of 
 great sanitary value. The use of certain animals for food was for- 
 bidden (llth Chap.) : quadrupeds that did not divide the hoof 
 and chew the cud, thus bespeaking digestive difficulties, fish that 
 had not fins and scales, birds that eat carrion, aquatic, winged, 
 creeping insects. Swine particularly were considered unclean, a 
 foreshadowing of parasitic impurity. Of the inestimable value of 
 these prohibitions upon the Israelite, of the lessons of self-denial, 
 self-control, and self-conquest that they taught, making his religion 
 a matter of every-day life, and thus moulding his character to ful- 
 fill his mission, need not be dwelt upon here. 
 
 Personal uncleanliness was guarded against, and to this end the 
 medical knowledge of Egypt, tabulated reports of which were kept, 
 was elaborated and developed. Special laws referring to the ablu- 
 tionary purification of women were enacted (Lev., 15th Chap.), 
 which, witli all other hygienic and dietary rules, obtain, more or 
 less, at the present time. 
 
 Salutary tenets concerning prevention of disease in general were 
 studied, and the isolation of an infected patient was compulsory. 
 (Lev., 13:46.) Leprosy, a thorough diagnosis of which is found 
 in Lev., 13th Chap., was guarded against as an abominable plague, 
 and the biblical instructions relating thereto are worthy of our own 
 age. Water left uncovered was considered impure (Num., 19:15), 
 and the fighting of disease by fire was enjoined (Num., 31:23). 
 The total destruction of infected dwellings and wooden household 
 utensils was a matter of necessity (Lev., 14:45), and running 
 water was recommended for ablutions. (Lev., 15:13.) 
 
 For fear of contagion, as well as, perhaps, for other reasons, con- 
 tact with the dead was forbidden (Num., 19:11) ; stringent purifi- 
 cation is prescribed for the violation of this law. 
 
 The Mosaic canon, by its prohibition of the use of blood (Lev., 
 17:10-14; Deut, 12:23, 24), held that there was a communicabil- 
 ity of disease between cattle and men; Dr. Koch to the contrary 
 notwithstanding. The examination of the intestines was compul- 
 sory, so that nothing deleterious should be eaten (Lev., 7:23) ; dis- 
 eased cattle of any kind were rejected as food. Animals that died 
 a natural death (Lev., 22:8), as well as those whose death had 
 been caused by an attack of another animal, were also inhibited. 
 (Exodus, 22:31.) 
 Cattle in articulo mortis were not to be killed for food, nor was
 
 3 
 
 v 
 
 the amputated limb of a living animal to be eaten. (Duet., 
 12:23.) For humane and hygienic reasons blood spilt upon the 
 ground was covered (Lev., 17:13), and the "seething of a kid in 
 the milk of its mother" (Exodus, 23 :19; Deut, 14:21) an ampli- 
 fication of which law is the Talmudic interdiction of eating meat 
 and butter together is forbidden. 
 
 Camp life necessitated the burying of excrement, offal, ordure, 
 and all refuse, and laws to this effect were stringent. (Deut., 
 23:13.) 
 
 In brief, if we may judge by the Mosaic dispensation and by 
 
 the later history of the Jews as recorded in certain verses in Holy 
 
 Writ, the priests and prophets moral teachers were also the 
 
 ' repositories of medical science (II Kings, 5:10; II Chron., 16:12), 
 
 advocating: Mens Sana in Corpore Sano. 
 
 The sanitation and hygiene of the Bible was, as was natural, 
 amplified and developed in the Talmud; fifteen hundred years 
 intervening between the Mosaic Law and the Mishnaic Eabbis. 
 The whole process, for instance, of the slaughter and examination 
 of animals for food is minutely explained in section Hulin, to the 
 very size and keenness of the knife, the cutting of the trachea 
 and esophagus to insure section of the large vessels of the neck 
 for the purpose of emptying the blood from the body, the sub- 
 sequent examination of the lungs and heart to determine whether 
 there be adhesions, one lobe to the other, or the whole or part to 
 the diaphragm or chest wall, whether perforations existed and to 
 what extent these defects were tubercular, animal phthisis and 
 tuberculosis being guarded against, from the conviction of the com- 
 municability of disease from cattle to man. Further, the detail 
 concerning the mode of examination for perforations, namely, the 
 inflation of the lungs while in water and the tell-tale bubble as a 
 consequence; of the removal of certain veins and arteries and of 
 the refusal of all animals for food that did not meet with the fore- 
 going hygienic requirements : this and more were expounded by the 
 rabbis. The apprehension of man becoming a part of what he eats 
 and absorbing the qualities of his food, as well as the idea of the 
 comparatively slow putrefaction of bloodless meat and its better 
 preservation on that account, resulted in the law for salting and 
 soaking the raw flesh. The deduction from the biblical command, 
 "Thou shalt not seethe the kid in its mother's milk," made the eat- 
 ing of mixed oleaginous matter, such as meat and milk, or meat
 
 and butter, appear to be gross nourishment, and hence forbidden. 
 The consequence of eating prohibited fish seems to have appealed 
 to the later rabbis who believed that typhoid could be spread by the 
 consumption of shell-fish ; oysters, for instance, being cultivated in 
 the ooze and slime of waterways. 
 
 The practice of circumcision and its concomitant use of styptics, 
 as referred to in the Talmud, presuppose a knowledge of anatomy, 
 surgery and therapeutics, the removal of the foreskin and the 
 underlying mucous membrane, the pressing back of the flesh to 
 the corona glandis, the caution against lacerating the fraenum, and 
 of the health of the child before the operation, and its care after. 
 The Mishnaic section Taharoth contains whole pages of pathologi- 
 cal conditions and their therapeutics, hygienic references, sanitary ' 
 suggestions, and the uses of herbs, etc., for medicinal purposes. A 
 glance at the contents of this section in its subdivisions will not 
 come amiss. 
 
 Kelim: Vessels. Uncleanliness of vessels (chiefly of capacity) 
 made of wood, stone, earth, leather, bone, metal or glass, and of 
 all manner of utensils. 
 
 Oholoth : Tents. Uncleanliness from contact with the dead. 
 (Num., 19:11-22.) The tent or house in which a man died and 
 everything within it are pronounced unclean. Under this head are 
 a variety of circumstances relating to the degrees of Uncleanliness, 
 distances at which people may receive infection from dead bodies, 
 etc. Of pollutions from sepulchres, and places where dead bodies 
 formerly buried have been exhumed. Of Uncleanliness in dwelling 
 houses. 
 
 Negaim: Leprosy in men and its infection to garments and 
 houses. (Lev., xiiirxiv.) Eules for discerning signs of leprosy. 
 At what time of the day infected persons are to be viewed. How 
 the examination is to be made. No man may pronounce upon his 
 own case; the priest only is to pronounce upon the Uncleanliness. 
 Articles touched by the leper unclean. Of leprosy in garments. 
 Garments made of camel's hair and sheep's wool mixed were never 
 infected, providing there was more of the former than the latter. 
 Of leprosy in houses. Method of examining them. Of infection 
 occasioned by a leper's entering a house, or walking in a crowd. 
 The purification of lepers. Details concerning remedial agents in 
 leprosy. Lepers prohibited to marry. 
 
 Taharoth: Purifications. This subdivision relates to minor
 
 5 
 
 impurities lasting for a day only, and the ablutions necessary for 
 their removal. The cleanliness of the olive press and the wine 
 press. 
 
 Mikavoth: Pools of Water. (Lev., 11:36.) Of pools of water 
 in which those that are unclean may bathe. What constitutes clean 
 water and what amount is necessary for a ritual bath. 
 
 Nidda: Menstrual Pollutions. The separation of women dur- 
 ing their menses and after childbirth, etc. 
 
 Zabim: Seminal uncleanliness in men. (Lev., 15 :1-19.) How 
 these pollutions operate so as to affect other matter. 
 
 Tebul Yom : Immersion on the day of uncleanliness. Eelating 
 to the ablutions of the priest. 
 
 Yadaim : Hands. Relating to the washing of the hands before 
 eating, and of other bodily cleanliness. 
 
 After a perusal of this extract it is not to be wondered at that 
 the rabbis pronounced a dictum that has its force today: "Cleanli- 
 ness is next to godliness." (Ab. Z., 20:2.) 
 
 Where health was concerned everything was of importance; the 
 number of cubic feet of air per pupil in the school room, the exam- 
 ination into the sanitary condition of highways and streets as well 
 as manufactories and workshops, and the burning of waste and 
 offal. 
 
 From the modern standpoint, the Talmudic "Theory and Prac- 
 tice of Medicine" may appear crude, strange and occasionally 
 unreasonable. Medicine, like other sciences, is a growth, and its 
 evolution and development is a reflex of its time. Physicians lay 
 great store by the knowledge of Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen, 
 yet the Talmud contains medical matter not to be found in the 
 works of either of these masters. 
 
 Much, however, was the common property of Judea, Greece and 
 Rome, and the marvel remains, not how empiric the practitioners 
 were, but how much they really knew, even from the standpoint of 
 the twentieth century. A careful reading of the Talmud throws 
 light upon the special Pathology of the age, and its Therapeutics. 
 Among other diseases, the diagnosis of which cannot be ascertained 
 with certainty today, are the following: 
 
 Malignant throat trouble, probably diphtheria (Ber., 8:1); 
 fevers (Ned., 41:1); jaundice (Sab., 109:2); boulemia (Yoma, 
 83:2); colic (Ned., 31:2); disease caused by drinking the froth 
 of liquids (Git., 69:1) ; nervousness manifested by the thought of
 
 6 
 
 impending danger (Git., 69:2) ; hydrophobia (Hag., 3:2) ; gastri- 
 tis (B. K., 80:1) ; bleeding of the nose (Git., 69:1) ; hemorrhage 
 of the lungs (Git., 69:1); congestion of the brain (Git., 68:4); 
 dropsy (Sab., 33:1) ; sexual diseases, syphilis, etc. (Sab., 110:1-2) ; 
 itch (Bech., 41:1); malaria (Git, 69:1); epilepsy (Sab., 61:1); 
 carbuncle (Ab. Z., 28:1) ; impotence (Git, 70:1) ; glanders ( Ket, 
 77:2); pterygium ophthalmia (Git, 69:1); flatulence (Pes., 
 116:1); polypus (Ket, 77:1); scorbutus (Ab. Z., 28:1); convul- 
 sions (HuL, 105:2) ; hemorrhoids (Ber., 55:1); blindness, by day 
 or night (Git, 69:1); worms, parasites (Sab., 109:2); tonsilitis 
 Git, 69:1); cancer (Ab. Z., 10:2); boils (Ab. Z., 21:1); gout 
 (Sota, 10:1); wounds (Ab. Z., 28:17); stone in the bladder (B. 
 M., 85:1); cardiacus (Git, 67:2); hip disease (Git, 69:2); ear- 
 ache, toothache and headache were common complaints, as they are 
 today. 
 
 Talmudic pathology is of quaint interest to modern physicians: 
 All animals designated in scripture "male and female" have among 
 them individuals of doubtful sex androgynes, or false herma- 
 phrodite. (Yeb., 88:2.) The rabbis could not decide to what sex 
 an androgynos belonged; but they agreed respecting the sex of a 
 tumtim true hermaphrodite. (Bic. Mishna, 4:5.) 
 
 Cardiacus is produced by drinking immoderately of new wine 
 direct from the wine press. As a natural remedy, take lean meat 
 roasted on coals and diluted wine. (Git, 67:2.) Rabbi Hanina 
 said: "Why is there not a certain infectious disease (rothon, 
 ostensibly a term for both scarlet fever and measles) in Babylon? 
 Because the inhabitants are accustomed to eat mangold and to 
 drink a beverage prepared from corn-rose. And why are there no 
 lepers in Babylon? Because the people are in the habit of eating 
 mangold and bathing in the Euphrates." The symptoms of rothon 
 are: Lachrymose eyes, running nostrils, flowing saliva. (Ket, 
 77:2.) Onions must have been risky eating. If a man has eaten 
 onions in the evening and is found dead the next morning, there 
 is no need to inquire of the cause of his death. (Era., 29:1.) 
 These six things are good symptoms in an invalid: Sneezing, pers- 
 piration, evacuation, seminal emission, sleep and dreaming. {Ber., 
 57:2.) The most painful of all deaths is that by quinsy, the pain 
 of which is like the forcible extraction of prickly thorns from wool, 
 or like a thick rope being drawn through a small aperture. (Ber., 
 8:1.) Dropsy may result from sexual excess or from insufficient
 
 food. (Sab., 33:1.) These things cause hemorrhoids: Eating cane 
 leaves, the foliage and tendrils of the vine, the palate of cattle, the 
 backbones of fish, half-cooked salt fish and wine lees. (Ber., 55:1.) 
 
 Eabbi Samuel said : "We know remedies for all maladies except 
 three : that induced by unripe dates on an empty stomach ; that 
 caused by wearing a damp linen girdle round one's loins; and that 
 occasioned by falling asleep after meals without having first walked 
 a distance of at least four cubits." (B. M., 113.2.) The Talmud 
 mentions a two-headed child (Mena., 37:1), that the sense of taste 
 was destroyed in the aged (Sab., 152:1), and that the function of 
 the kidneys was known. (Ber., 61 :1.) 
 
 There are five symptoms in a rabid dog : its mouth is continually 
 open, its saliva flows freely, its ears dangle, its tail is held between 
 its legs, and it walks in by-paths. According to Rabbi Samuel, the 
 animal is to be destroyed by means of an arrow or a knife, thrown 
 at it; but personal contact with it must be shunned. Injury is the 
 result of contact; death that of a bite. (Yoma., 83:2.) 
 
 An anemic condition is referred to (Sab., 134:1), as well as dis- 
 coloration of the teeth, caused by fasting. (Hag., 22:2.) 
 
 Therapeutic agents in Talmudic times were largely herbal, and 
 considering the limited pharmacopoeia, the rabbis did much with 
 little. For asthma, it says, take fennel, mint, and wormwood, and 
 for convulsions after childbirth, take the same in spirits. (Ab. Z., 
 29:1.) 
 
 The Holy One, blessed be He, created nothing in the world with- 
 out a purpose. He created the snail or leech as a remedy for con- 
 tusions; the fly for the sting of bees; the gnat for the bite of a 
 serpent; the serpent for the cure of a scab; and the lizard for the 
 sting of a scorpion. (Sab., 77:2.) 
 
 For cardiacus, if it be the result of excessively hot temperature, 
 and if it be of several days' standing, cut up a black hen longitudi- 
 nally and latitudinally, and apply it to the upper part of the head, 
 after it has been closely shaven; and when it holds firmly to the 
 skin, let the patient be placed up to his neck in water till he feels 
 faint. Let him then be taken out and allowed to rest; let him be 
 given lean meat roasted on coals, and diluted wine. If the malady 
 be produced by a cold, give him fat meat roasted on coals and undi- 
 luted wine. (Git., 67:2.) In jaundice, feed the patient with ass's 
 flesh. Whoever is bitten by a mad dog, may be fed with the left 
 lobe of the dog's liver (Yoma, 84:1) ; evidently an early instance
 
 8 
 
 of homeopathy, similia similibus curantur, and, perhaps, a fore- 
 shadowing of the modern discovery of the destructive influence of 
 bile on various toxic agents. 
 
 For the bite of a serpent, a hen may be cut up and applied to the 
 wound; herbs may also be used for the same purpose. (Yoma., 
 83:2.) For continued fever, the weight in sea-salt of a brand-new 
 souz (coin) suspended on a papyrus fibre round the patient's neck 
 so that it rests in the hollow in front. For tertian fever, take seven 
 small grapes from seven different vines and seven grains of caraway 
 seed, and tie them to the hollow in front of the neck with a papyrus 
 fibre. (Sab., 66:2.) It may be here remarked, that seven was a 
 sacred number. 
 
 Eabbi Yochanan, who suffered from scurvy, applied to a Gentile 
 matron for a remedy, which she prepared for him, namely: yeast, 
 water, olive oil and salt. (Yoma., 84:1.) 
 
 Three effects are ascribed to Babylonian broth (which was made 
 of mouldy bread, sour milk and salt) : It retards the action of the 
 heart, it affects the eyesight, and emaciates the body. (Pes., 42:1.) 
 
 Black cummin is one of the sixty deadly drugs. (Ber., 40:1.) 
 
 Six things are a certain cure for sickness (nausea) : Cabbage, 
 beet root, water distilled from dry moss, honey, the maw and the 
 matrix of an animal and the left lobe of the liver. (Ber., 40:1.) 
 
 Five things are said concerning garlic: It nourishes, it warms 
 inwardly, it brightens the complexion, it increases virility, and 
 destroys cancer. (B. K., 82:1.) 
 
 Garlic was in high repute in Egypt, where the Israelites may 
 have learned to appreciate it. Dioscorides (Book I, p. 80) says: 
 
 "The gods were recommended by their taste; 
 Such savoury deities must needs be good, 
 Which served at once for worship and for food/' 
 
 Juvenal makes this the point d'appui of one of his sarcasms 
 (Sat, 12): 
 
 "How Egypt, mad with superstition grown, 
 Makes gods of monsters, but too well is known. 
 'Tis mortal sin an onion to devour; 
 Each clove of garlic has a sacred power. 
 Eeligious nation, sure and blest abodes, 
 Where every garden is o'errun with gods."
 
 9 
 
 Aphasia seems to have been known in those days, for we read 
 that five things restore the memory: Bread, baked upon coals; 
 soft-boiled eggs without salt, the continued use of olive oil, mulled 
 wine and plenty of salt. (Ab. Z., 29:1.) 
 
 As eating olives causes one to forget things that he has 
 known for seventy years, so olive oil brings back to the memory 
 events that happened seventy years before. (Ab. Z., 13:2.) 
 
 These things provoke a desperate relapse in a convalescent : Eat- 
 ing beef, fat meat, broiled meat, fowl, roasted eggs, cress, taking 
 milk or cheese, or indulging in a bath. Some say also eating wal- 
 nuts, others say eating cucumbers. (Ber., 57:2.) 
 
 Oil is a specific for wounds (B. M., 113:2), and asafoetida for 
 cramps (Sab., 140:1). Plaster and ointment (Sab., 133:1) served 
 much the same purpose as they do today. Cinnamon, myrrh and 
 galbanum (Ket., 6:2) were used as disinfectants and deodorants, 
 as well as in embalming. 
 
 From the assertion that the bathing season at the hot baths of 
 Dirnsis lasted twenty-one days (Sab., 147:2), and that the hot 
 baths at Tiberius had curative properties (Sab., 40:1), one may 
 gather that there were fashionable watering places in those times 
 also. 
 
 For rothon, which seems to have been a term for both scarlet 
 fever and measles, the following curious treatment is recom- 
 mended : Boil the leaves of nard, rock-roses, the bark of nut trees, 
 the scrapings of hides, trefoil, and the shells of unripe dates in a 
 large quantity of water. Eemove the patient to a chamber built 
 of marble, and therefore air-proof; or, failing this, into one of 
 which the walls are seven bricks and a half thick, or about twenty- 
 two hand-breadths. When there, put three hundred bowls of this 
 concoction upon his head till the scalp is sufficiently softened to 
 allow of the application of the operator's knife. The brain laid 
 bare, take four leaves of myrtle and insert one under each of the 
 feet of the insect (which is the cause of the disease). This will 
 prevent it, on being seized, from burying its nails in the membrane 
 of the brain. Eemove it with a pair of tweezers, and throw it into 
 the fire, otherwise it will find its way back to the brain. 
 
 Rabbi Yochanan used to warn against contact with the insects 
 that clung to such sufferers. Eabbi Zera would not sit where a 
 current of air blew from the direction they happened to be. (Ket., 
 77:2.)
 
 10 
 
 As a specific for earache, oil obtained from the maybug and 
 poured into the ear; for headache, an application of pitch; and for 
 toothache, a paste of garlic, salt ond oil, rubbed on the gum or 
 pressed into the cavity. (Sab., 111:1; 90:1.) Pepper was a remedy 
 for offensive breath (Sab., 64:2), and wine dropped into the eye 
 for ophthalmia. (Sab., 108:2.) The most frequent cause of bodily 
 complaints is the blood, and the best of all remedies is wine. (B. 
 B., 58:2.) 
 
 In Anatomy and Physiology, the rabbis taught that the human 
 body has two hundred and forty-eight members : thirty in the foot, 
 i. e., six in each toe, ten in the ankle, two in the thigh, five in the 
 knee, one in the hip, three in the hip-ball, eleven ribs, thirty bones 
 in the hand, i. e., six in each finger, two in the fore-arm, two in the 
 elbow, one in the upper arm, four in the shoulder. Thus we have 
 one hundred and one on each side; to this add eighteen vertebrae 
 in the spine, nine in the head, eight in the neck, six in the chest, 
 and five in the loins. (Oh., 1:8.) Also the trachea, esophagus, 
 lungs, bronchi, gall, meninges, placenta, matrix, spinal cord and 
 spleen, and three hundred and sixty-five nerves and arteries. 
 (Bech., 45 :1.) The regular period of gestation is two hundred and 
 seventy-one to two hundred and seventy-three days. (Md., 38:1.) 
 There are four more bones in the female than in the male. (Bee., 
 45:1.) A creature that has no bones in its body does not live more 
 than twelve months. (Hullin, 58:1.) 
 
 During the first three months of pregnancy the child lies in the 
 lower part of the uterus, during the next three it occupies the mid- 
 dle part, and during the last three it is in the upper part. (Nid., 
 31 :1.) The regular action of the excretory organs is the secret of 
 a man's healthy looks, and a disordered stomach is the root of most 
 diseases. (Ber., 55:1.) A fowl hatches in twenty-one days, and 
 a pig bears in sixty. (Bech., 8:1.) 
 
 Simple surgery must have had a fair field, as lancing and cup- 
 ping were prevalent. The rabbis taught : He that draws blood 
 from his veins should not taste milk, cheese, onions or cress. 
 (Kid., 42:1.) 
 
 The Talmud teaches that in the biblical reference to Daniel and 
 his three friends, the expression "not even the scar of a lancet was 
 upon them" bespeaks the prevalence of blood-letting in the East, 
 and the absence of the scar on the persons of Daniel and his com-
 
 11 
 
 panions is a testimony to their health, of body, and their moral 
 purity. (San., 39:1-2.) 
 
 Mention is made of a certain phlebotomist a noteworthy excep- 
 tion to the well-known rule (Kid., 82:2) that phlebotomists are 
 to be regarded as morally depraved, and in the same class with 
 goldsmiths, perfumers, hair-dressers, etc. Abba Umna by name, 
 who had a special mantle with slits in the sleeves for females, so 
 that he could surgically operate upon them without seeing their 
 naked arms, while he himself wore a cloak over head and shoulders 
 so that his own face could not be seen by them. 
 
 Even dental surgery was known. A man once vowed that he 
 would not marry his sister's daughter, as she had lost a front tooth. 
 On hearing this, Rabbi Ishmael supplied her with a gold tooth, and 
 naturally the couple lived happily ever after. (Ned., 66:1.) 
 
 Two difficult operations are recorded: A tube passed through 
 the cranium to the back of the eyes, for relief in ophthalmia (B. 
 M., 85, B.) ; and the Caesarian section (Nid., 40:1). The opening 
 of an abscess was common (Ab. Z., 28:1), and the dissection of a 
 cadaver is also mentioned. (Ber., 45:1.) An instance is cited 
 of the skin of the human face being anatomically removed and 
 scientifically preserved so as to retain accurately the natural 
 features and expression of the original. (Ab. Z., 11:2.) 
 
 Hygiene, both physical and dietetic, is preeminently a Talmudic 
 safeguard, as the following extracts will show: 
 
 A man must not marry into a family that is subject to epilepsy 
 or leprosy. (Yeb., 64:2.) Washing the hands before and after 
 meals is obligatory. (Hul., 105:2.) 
 
 There are seven hundred species of fish, eight hundred of locusts 
 and twenty-four of birds that are unclean, while the species of 
 birds that are clean cannot be numbered. (Hul., 63:2.) 
 
 Until one is forty, eating is more advantageous than drinking. 
 After that age, the rule is reversed. (Hul., 152 :1.) It were better 
 to cut the hands off than to touch the eye, the nose, the mouth, the 
 ear, without having first washed them. Unwashed hands may 
 cause blindness, deafness, foulness of breath, or polypus. (Sab., 
 109:1.) 
 
 If two men immerse at the same time in an ablutionary-font 
 containing exactly forty measures (gallons) of water (the lowest 
 quantity required by law), they are both clean. If one after the 
 other, the first is clean, and the second still unclean. (Git., 16:1.)
 
 12 
 
 Water that had been left uncovered should not be emptied in a 
 public thoroughfare, nor be used for the purpose of laying the dust 
 of the floor of the house, nor for making mortar. No man should 
 allow his own beast nor that of his neighbor to drink of it, nor 
 should any one bathe his face, hands, or feet in it for fear of the 
 poison that it may contain. (Ab. Z., 30:2.) 
 
 If one eats and does not drink, his food turns to blood, one of 
 the causes of derangement of the bowels. If one has eaten and 
 does not walk four cubits before taking a siesta his food is not 
 digested, and will cause, among other disorders, offensive breath. 
 (Sab., 41:1.) 
 
 Seven liquids come under the generic term drink (Lev., xi:34) : 
 Dew, water, wine, oil, blood, milk and honey. (Mach., 6:6.) 
 
 Three cups of wine during supper are recommended to aid diges- 
 tion. (Ket., 8:2.) 
 
 A soft boiled egg gives more nourishment than six ounces of fine 
 flour. (Ber., 44:2.) 
 
 The monthly eating of lentils prevents quinsy, but they are not 
 to be eaten every day, as they taint the breath. Mustard eaten once 
 in thirty days drives away sickness, but if taken every day the 
 action of the heart is apt to be affected. (Ber., 40:1.) 
 
 He that is in the habit of eating small fish does not suffer from 
 indigestion ; and what is more, such food contributes to the healthy 
 development of the whole body. (Ber., 40:1.) 
 
 Hemorrhoids are induced by eating cane leaves, vine leaves, and 
 tendrils, such unsalted parts of slain cattle as have a rough sur- 
 face, the vertebra of fish, salt fish not sufficiently cooked, the lees 
 of wine, etc., etc. (Ber., 55:1.) 
 
 Use no pot for cooking which another has already used. (Pes., 
 112:2.) 
 
 If one desires to eat a hearty meal, let him walk ten times a dis- 
 tance of four cubits, or four times a distance of ten cubits. (Ber., 
 23:2.) 
 
 A meal without broth is no meal. (Ber., 44:1.) 
 
 Meat counteracts loss of flesh, and red wine loss of blood. (Sab., 
 129:1.) 
 
 People should not converse during meals, lest the food go the 
 wrong way. (Taanith, 5:2.) 
 
 Whoever wishes to escape derangement of the bowels should 
 bathe habitually summer and winter. (Git., 70:1.)
 
 13 
 
 The use of lint is recommended for one of tender years, one with 
 child, and one that suckles an infant. (Yeb., 12 :2.) 
 
 Oil of cloves has the effect of removing the hair and softening 
 the skin. (Men., 86:1.) 
 
 Bad bread, fresh-brewed beverages, and pungent vegetables 
 diminish evacuation and shrink the figure. (Pes., 42:1.) 
 
 Milt is good for the teeth but indigestible ; leeks are injurious to 
 the teeth but good for digestion ; all vegetables eaten raw spoil the 
 complexion; all unripe or insufficiently prepared edibles are inju- 
 rious. All animal food strengthens, and so do those parts that are 
 near the seat of life. Cabbage is good for food, and mangold for 
 healing; and woe to the stomach into which turnip enters. (Ber., 
 44:2.) 
 
 The inner part of watermelons is healthful when eaten with beet 
 root. (Ned., 49:1.) 
 
 If the patient desires something, and the physician thinks he is 
 not to have it, the former is to be gratified, because (Prov., 
 14:10) "The heart knows its own bitterness." (Yoma, 83:1.) 
 
 After all meals eat a little salt, and after all beverages drink a 
 little water. If one has eaten any dish, and has not taken salt 
 afterwards, or if he has drunk any beverage and has not partaken 
 of water thereafter, if it happens by day, he may apprehend offen- 
 sive breath, if by night, an attack of quinsy. (Ber., 40:1.) 
 
 Any meal without salt does not deserve the name. (Ber., 44:1.) 
 
 Eight things diminish the power of procreation : Excessive con- 
 sumption of salt, hunger, leprosy, weeping, sleeping on the bare 
 ground, trefoil, certain unripe berries and blood-letting at the 
 lower part of the body. (Gittin., 70:1.) 
 
 There are eighty-three diseases which may be prevented by an 
 early breakfast of bread and salt and a small pitcher of water. 
 (B. K., 92:2.) 
 
 He that drinks during meals preserves himself from bowel com- 
 plaint. (Ber., 40:1.) 
 
 Rav said: "He that is in the habit of eating small fishes pre- 
 serves himself from derangement of the bowels. More than that, 
 small fishes fatten, augment and strengthen the whole human body. 
 He that eats carraway seed does not suffer from headache." 
 Against this Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel is cited, who said that 
 carraway seed was one of the sixty deadly poisons. (Ber., 40:1.) 
 
 Any sickness rather than derangement of the bowels; any pain
 
 14 
 
 rather than that in the heart; any complaint rather than headache, 
 and any evil rather than an evil wife. (Sab., 11 :1.) 
 
 Pearl barley, which remains in the sieve after the husks have 
 been blown off, acts medicinally upon a patient. (Ned., 41:2.) 
 
 One rabbi who visited another on his deathbed, and found him 
 weeping, reminded him, by way of consolation, of the old tradi- 
 tion, that to die of relaxation of the bowels was a good omen, 
 because the majority of the righteous died of that complaint. 
 (Ket, 103:2.) 
 
 Cold water, morning and evening, is better than all cosmetics. 
 (Sab., 108:2.) 
 
 A wet-nurse should have relaxation from work, and an addi- 
 tional allowance to her diet; also an extra portion of wine; for 
 wine increases milk. (Ket., 65:2.) 
 
 Six things possess medicinal virtue: Cabbage, lungwort, beet 
 root, water, and certain parts of the intestines of animals, and 
 some also say little fishes. (Ab. Z., 29:1.) 
 
 There are sixty kinds of wine ; the best of all is the red aromatic 
 wine; bad white wine is the worst. (Git., 70:1.) 
 
 An early breakfast of bread and salt and a bottle of water will 
 cure biliousness. (B. K., 92:2.) 
 
 The following is moral, and not physical: One cup of wine is 
 good for a woman, two are disgraceful, three demoralizing, and 
 four brutalizing. (Ket, 65:1.) 
 
 The Talmud also gives some particulars of its medical practi- 
 tioners. For two hundred and fifty years (from 200 B. C. to 50 
 C. E.) the Essenes, a Jewish sect, practiced medicine. A female 
 analyst is mentioned in the mother of Abaii (Gitt., 67 :2) a cau- 
 tion not to live in a city whereof the mayor is a physician (Pes., 
 113:1), from which one may draw his own inference, and the sug- 
 gestion that a physician who professes to cure for nothing is often 
 worth nothing. (B. K., 85:1.) 
 
 The greatest of the Talmudic physicians was Samuel the Astron- 
 omer, who flourished in the third century A. C. E., and "who knew 
 the paths of the heavens as well as the streets of Nahardea." His 
 medical opinions are scattered throughout the post-mishnaic writ- 
 ings. He was a specialist in bowel complaints (Ned., 50:2), and 
 an ardent upholder of the pure water and pure air cure. (Sab., 
 41:1.) He also compounded a salve that healed wounds very 
 effectively. (B. M., 107:2.) Ben Achijah flourished about 100
 
 15 
 
 B. C. E., and was attached to the Temple of Jerusalem. His pro- 
 fessional services were continually required by the priests who, 
 walking barefoot upon the marble pavements, became catarrhal. 
 (Shek., 5:1.) Rabbi Haninah of Sephoris, a contemporary of 
 Samuel the Astronomer, is also noted. He believed that warm 
 water and anointing with oil would prolong life. (Yoma., 49:1.) 
 
 Rabbi Gamliel III, the last descendant of the renowned Hillel 
 and the last Patriarch, flourished in the first half of the fifth cent- 
 ury A. C. E. He was supposed to have found a specific for the 
 cure of diseases incident to the spleen. His contemporary, Marcel- 
 lus Empiricus, physician to the Emperor Theodosius, remarked in 
 his work "De Medicamentis empiricis, physicis," etc., lib. 21, "Ad 
 splenem remedium singulare, quod de experimentis Gamlielus 
 patriarchus proxime ostendit." (Bergel, Med. der Tal.) 
 
 Aba, the phlebotomist, was also an eminent physician. Apart 
 from his practice, he enjoyed the reputation of being very charita- 
 ble, his fees were left to the discretion of the patient and were 
 placed by the patient in a box hidden from all eyes. He helped 
 poor Talmud students and was a benefactor generally. (Taanith, 
 21:2.) 
 
 Of Rabbi Kahana it is told that he cured a case of jaundice by 
 wrapping the patient in cloths, thereby causing excessive perspira- 
 tion. (Sab., 110:2.) 
 
 Abaii or Nachmani, Jacob the Manichean, Bejamin the Essene. 
 Theodas of Laodicea, Jacob of Sicyon, Tobias of Modin and Joseph 
 of Gamla were all well known, but it does not appear that an 
 extended record of their work was kept. 
 
 In conclusion: An effort has been made to review the Hygiene 
 and Medicine of the Talmud in their several scientific branches. 
 Indifferent reasoning has not been concealed, the good and the bad 
 have both been stated. To the modern physician the diagnosis of 
 a disease by some mishnaic doctor and the remedy prescribed may 
 occasionally seem curious if not puerile; but it cannot be gainsaid 
 that the Jews of old were in the dim light that flickered two thou- 
 sand years ago, fully abreast of their contemporaries, and in many 
 instances in advance of them. The rabbinical mode of slaughter- 
 ing cattle and the subsequent examination of tbe carcass is in 
 vogue today among millions of Jewish people, and has the seal of 
 approval of the most scientific men of the medical profession.
 
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