ring the early Christian centuries much was owed to the genius and the
devotion to medicine of distinguished Jewish physicians. Their sacred
and rabbinical writers always concerned themselves closely with
medicine, and both the Old Testament and the Talmud must be considered
as containing chapters important for the medical history of the periods
in which they were written. At all times the Jews have been
distinguished for their knowledge of medicine, and all during the Middle
Ages they are to be found prominent as physicians. They were among the
teachers of the Arabs in the East and of the Moors in Spain. They were
probably among the first professors at Salerno as well as at
Montpellier. Many prominent rulers and ecclesiastics selected Jewish
physicians. Some of these made distinct contributions to medicine, and a
number of them deserve a place in any account of medicine in the making
during the Middle Ages. One of them, Maimonides, to whom a special
chapter is devoted, deserves a place among the great makers of medicine
of all time, because of the influence that he exerted on his own and
succeeding generations. Any story of the preservation and development of
medical teaching and medical practice during the Middle Ages would be
decidedly incomplete without due consideration of the work of Jewish
physicians.

Western medical literature followed Roman literature in other
departments, and had only the Greek traditions at second hand. During
the disturbance occasioned by the invasion of the barbarians there was
little opportunity for such leisure as would enable men to devote
themselves with tranquillity to medical study and writing. Medical
traditions were mainly preserved in the monasteries. Cassiodorus, who,
after having been Imperial Prime Minister, became a monk, recommended
particularly the study of medicine to the monastic brethren. With the
foundation of the Benedictines, medicine became one of the favorite
studies of the monks, partly for the sake of the health of the brethren
themselves, and partly in order that they might be helpful to the
villages that so often gathered round their monasteries. There is a
well-grounded tradition that at Monte Cassino medical teaching was one
of the features of the education provided there by the monks. It is
generally conceded that the Benedictines had much to do with the
foundation of Salerno. In the convents for women as well as the
monasteries for men serious attention was g