intellectual impulse. Of such were
Aben Tybbon, who gave to his own profession a pharmaceutical tendency by
insisting on the study of botany and art of preparing drugs. Ben Kimchi,
a Narbonnese physician and grammarian, wrote commentaries on the Bible,
sacred and moral poems, a Hebrew grammar. Notwithstanding the opposition
of the ecclesiastics, William, the Lord of Montpellier, passed an edict
authorizing all persons, without exception, to profess medicine in the
university of his city. This was specially meant for the relief of the
Jews, though expressed in a general way. [Sidenote: Maimonides.] Spain,
though she had thus lost many of her learned men, still continued to
produce others of which she had reason to be proud. Moussa Ben Maimon,
known all over Europe as Maimonides, was recognized by his countrymen as
"the Doctor, the Great Sage, the Glory of the West, the Light of the
East, second only to Moses." He is often designated by the four initials
R. M. B. M., that is Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, or briefly Rambam. His
biography presents some points of interest. He was born at Cordova A.D.
1135, and, while yet young, wrote commentaries on the Talmuds both of
Babylon and Jerusalem, and also a work on the Calendar; but, embracing
Mohammedanism, he emigrated to Egypt, and there became physician to the
celebrated Sultan Saladin. Among his works are medical aphorisms,
derived from former Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and Arabic sources; an
abridgment of Galen; and of his original treatises, which were very
numerous, may be mentioned those "On Hemorrhoids," "On Poisons and
Antidotes," "On Asthma," "On the Preservation of Health,"--the latter
being written for the benefit of the son of Saladin--"On the Bites of
Venomous Animals"--written by order of the sultan--"On Natural History."
His "Moreh Nevochim," or "Teacher of the Perplexed," was an attempt to
reconcile the doctrines of the Old Testament with reason. In addition to
these, he had a book on Idolatry, and one on Christ. Besides Maimonides,
the sultan had another physician, Ebn Djani, the author of a work on the
medical topography of the city of Alexandria. From the biographies of
these learned men of the twelfth century it would seem that their
religious creed hung lightly upon them. Not unfrequently they became
converted to Mohammedanism.

[Sidenote: Later Jewish physicians.] It might be tedious if I should
record the names and writings of the learned European Jews of the
twel