of the
influence of the Viking invasions, and cannot go back much beyond the
year 1000. At one time it was incorporated in a larger work now lost,
the Psalter of Cashel. We also possess a 9th-century treatise on Sunday
observance (_Cain Domnaig_).

Medicine.

The medical profession in Ireland was hereditary in a number of
families, such as the O'Lees (from Irish _liaig_, "a leech"), the
O'Hickeys (Irish _icide_, "the healer"), the O'Shiels, the O'Cassidys,
and many others. These families each had their own special leech-books,
some of which are still preserved. In addition to these there are many
others. The medical literature which has come down to us is contained in
MSS. ranging from the 13th to the 18th centuries. The Irish MSS. are
translations from the Latin with the invariable commentary, and they
further contain additions derived from experience. YBL. contains four of
these tracts, and amongst others we may mention the Book of the
O'Hickeys, a translation of the _Lilium Medicinae_ of Bernard Gordon
(written 1303), the Book of the O'Lees (written in 1443), the Book of
the O'Shiels, transcribed in 1657, and the Book of MacAnlega,
transcribed in 1512. Of these texts only two have been published as yet
from MSS. in Edinburgh. O'Curry drew up a MS. catalogue of the medical
MSS. in the Royal Irish Academy, and many more are described in
O'Grady's catalogue of Irish MSS. in the British Museum. Some few MSS.
deal with the subject of astronomy, but up to the present no description
of the texts has been published.

Later Irish literature.

With the steady advance of the English power after 1600 it was only
natural that the school of bardic poets should decline. But at the
beginning of the 17th century for the last time they gave a great
display of their resources. Tadhg MacDaire, the ollam of the earl of
Thomond, composed a poem in elaborate verse exalting the line of Eber
(represented by the reigning families of Munster) at the expense of the
line of Eremon (represented by the reigning families of the other
provinces). In a body of verse attributed to Torna Eces (c. 400), but
obviously of more recent origin, the Eremonian, Niall Noigiallach, is
lavishly praised, and Tadhg's attack takes the form of a refutation of
Torna's pretensions. The challenge was immediately taken up by Lughaidh
O'Clery. The recriminations of the two bards extend to nearly 3000 lines
of verse, and naturally drew down the attention of th