other drugs are certainly derived from Grecian medicine; the laying-on of hands, prayer and conjurations are with less certainty due to the same source. In dietetics it was recommended before the age of forty to take more food than drink; after that age, to reverse the habit: after meals to eat salt, and then to drink water freely, but not to work too much, nor to walk, sleep, nor indulge in venery or wine. On the other hand, it is advised to visit the water-closet regularly every morning, and to bathe, anoint and wash frequently.

The anatomy of the Talmudists is based chiefly upon the dissection of animals, though Rabbi Ishmael, at the close of the first century, dissected, or rather “skeletonized" by boiling, the body of a prostitute1 (dissection in the interests of science was permitted by the Talmud), on which occasion he found 252 (instead of 232) bones. They recognized the origin of the spinal cord at the foramen magnum, and its termination in the cauda equina; allowed two coats to the esophagus: included the lungs in two coverings, and gave a special coat to the fat about the kidneys. As regards explorative measures, they were very well acquainted with their favorite subject of investigation, and called the uterus---the sleeping chamber; the cervix uteri--the porch; the "seed-vessels"—the store-room; the vagina-the outer house; the hymen (unknown even to the Greeks, but not overlooked by the Talmudists in their very zealous investigations of this region) was called the virginity; the labia majora-the hinges; the prolabia--the doors; the clitoris-the key. The whole female body was compared to a larder! They assumed the existence of a fabulous "Ossiculum Lus", an indestructible part of the body, believed to serve, like seed, for the reconstruction of the whole body in the resurrection, and called by the Arabians "Aldabaran" (Langer).

In physiology they assume cold, heat, dryness and moisture as component forces. In experimental physiology they point out that removal of the spleen is not fatal, and distinguish between semen and albumen by the fact that the former, under the influence of heat, deliquesces, while the latter coagulates.

The knowledge of the Talmudists in the natural sciences embraces the Mosaic zoology, while their botanical knowledge extends beyond the Bible. According to them the elementary bodies are earth, air, fire and water. In midwifery they teach that pregnancy continues 270-273 days, and cannot be determined before the fourth month. As a means of recognizing this condition they give the deeper sinking-in of the pregnant female in walking over soft ground. The foetus born in the eighth month is not viable. Normally the foetus lies folded together like a roll of parchment, the hands upon the temples, swimming in the amnion like a nut in the water. Casarean section on the living female was practised with success (Israëls), and they were also acquainted with version, evisceration, abortion, moles and monsters (including absence of the extremities, imperforate anus, hermaphroditism, cryptorchidism, hypospadias etc.), which are ascribed to coitus of a demon or beast with a woman, or of a man with a beast. Quite as remarkable, but much more important, is the knowledge of the rabbis in the history of generation and development, as well as in gynecology. With respect to the first subject especially, their statements seem to depend upon "their own experiments". For example, they say that introduction of the whole penis is not always necessary for impregnation, but that mere introduction of the glans,-what the lascivious rabbis (the discoverer of this learned Talmudic expression must have prided himself no little upon it!) call osculatio glandis-is suffi

1. Prostitutes were numerous among the Jews. They were required to veil their faces while walking upon the streets, and to solicit custom only while sitting before their houses. The latter regulation was designed to prevent street prostitution.