the "r" months). After passing his fiftieth year an
individual should abstain from venesection. Venesection should
not be practised on the day when one takes a bath or goes on a
journey or returns from it. On the day when it is practised
less than usual should be eaten and drunk, and the patient
should give himself to rest, undertake no work nor bothersome
occupation, and take no walk.

19. Whoever observes these rules of life faithfully I
guarantee him a long life without disease. He shall reach a
good old age, and when he comes to die will not need a
physician. His body will remain always strong and healthy,
unless of course he has been born with a weak nature, or has
had an unfortunate bringing up, or should be attacked by
epidemic disease or by famine.

20. Only the healthy should keep these rules. Whoever is ill
or a sufferer from any injuries, or has lost his health
through bad habits, for him there are special rules for each
disease, only to be found in the medical books. Let it be
remembered that every change in a life habit is the beginning
of an ailment.

21. If no physician can be secured, then ailing people may use
these rules as well as the healthy.

These rules are, of course, full of the common sense of medicine that
endures at all times. For the tropical climate of the Eastern countries
they probably represent as good advice as could be given even at the
present time. With them before us it is not surprising to find that on
other subjects Maimonides was just as sensible. Perhaps in nothing is
this more striking than in his complete rejection of astrology.
Considering how long astrology, in the sense of the doctrine of the
stars influencing human health and destinies, had dominated men's minds,
and how universal was the acceptance of it, Maimonides' strong
expressions show how much genius lifts itself above the popular
persuasions of its time, even among the educated, and how much it
anticipates subsequent knowledge.

It is well to remind ourselves that as late as the middle of the
eighteenth century Mesmer's thesis on "The Influence of the Stars on
Human Constitutions" was accepted by the faculty of the University of
Vienna as a satisfactory evidence not only of his knowledge of medicine,
but of his power to reason about it. At the end of the twelfth century
Maimonides was trying to argue it ou