represents so much more of genuine
knowledge of medicine and surgery than might be expected at the early
period at which it was written, during the first and second century of
our era, that it seems well to quote it at some length.

"Fever was regarded as nature's effort to expel morbific
matter and restore health; which is a much safer
interpretation of fever, from a practical point of view, than
most of the theories bearing on this point that have been
taught up to a very recent period. They attributed the halting
in the hind legs of a lamb to a callosity formed around the
spinal cord. This was a great advance in the knowledge of the
physiology of the nervous system. An emetic was recommended as
the best remedy for nausea. In many cases no better remedy is
known to-day. They taught that a sudden change in diet was
injurious, even if the quality brought by the change was
better. That milk fresh from the udder was the best. The
Talmud describes jaundice and correctly ascribes it to the
retention of bile, and speaks of dropsy as due to the
retention of urine. It teaches that atrophy or rupture of the
kidneys is fatal. Induration of the lungs (tuberculosis) was
regarded as incurable. Suppuration of the spinal cord had an
early, grave meaning. Rabies was known. The following is a
description given of the dog's condition: 'His mouth is open,
the saliva issues from his mouth; his ears drop; his tail
hangs between his legs; he runs sideways, and the dogs bark at
him; others say that he barks himself, and that his voice is
very weak. No man has appeared who could say that he has seen
a man live who was bitten by a mad dog.' The description is
good, and this prognosis as to hydrophobia in man has remained
unaltered till in our day when Pasteur published his startling
revelation. The anatomical knowledge of the Talmudists was
derived chiefly from dissection of the animals. As a very
remarkable piece of practical anatomy for its very early date
is the procuring of the skeleton from the body of a
prostitute by the process of boiling, by Rabbi Ishmael, a
physician, at the close of the first century. He gives the
number of bones as 252 instead of 232. The Talmudists knew the
origin of the spinal cord at the foramen magnum and its form
of termination; they des