Maimonides, a Twelfth Century Physician

MAIMONIDES,* A TWELFTH CENTURY PHYSICIAN By WALTER MENDELSON, M.D.

NEW YORK, N. Y. A FOREWORD IN APPRECIATION OF SOLOMON SCHECHTER

HE writer of the talk, were displayed not only his wide T following sketch knowledge, but also his broad and liberal feels that he owes thesympathy in all things human and cultural. reader a certain apolo­ Here shone too, his humor, his wit and his gia. He is only too repartee. For his mind was like a sword well aware that he and would leap forth sudden and bright, lacks the qualifica­ and before one was aware one found one­ tions for writing au­ self, and that, too, not unpleasantly, im­ thoritatively on Mai- paled upon the point of his kindly irony. monides, for he has His conversation was of such a quality that no Hebrew, no Arabic it compelled attention because of its bril­ no Greek, no Latin, nor any first-hand liant and unexpected turns. All these ele­ acquaintance with the philosophic and ments added an interest and a sparkle to theologic literature of the Middle Ages. the pleasures of an intercourse in which Alas! Die Zeiten der Vergangenheit sind philosophy and erudition were made to uns ein Buch mit sieben Siegel, as Faust mingle with gaiety and laughter. says to his famulus Wagner, and how far Dr. Schechter, a Roumanian born, came does even he penetrate who may have here from England with a long established broken but a few of these seven seals! reputation as one of the foremost rabbinical The circumstances that inspired the writ­ scholars. For some years he had held a ing of this paper were, however, of so lively readership at the University of Cambridge, and interesting a character to the writer and a professorship at the University of himself through his association with Pro­ London. At Cambridge his life was highly fessor Schechter, that he ventures to think congenial, as his friends and associates were that the following account of this man and such men as Sir James G. Frazer, author of his work will also be of interest to the the “Golden Bough,” Dr. Eriker Magnus- reader. sen, the Icelandic scholar, W. D. Buckland, In 1902 Dr. Solomon Schechter came to regius professor of law, Rendell Harris, this country to assume the presidency of the New Testament scholar, Sir Donald the then newly established Jewish Theolog­ MacAIister, later principal of Glasgow ical Seminary in New York. University, and, perhaps most important of It was my good fortune to be referred to all, Dr. Charles Taylor, master of St. John’s him and to become his physician, and from College, eminent as a Hebrew scholar, and that time, until his sudden death in 1915, one of the few who recognized the impor­ our relations were frequent and intimate. tance of that post-Biblical Jewish literature, Schechter was in many ways a remarkable to which Schechter himself had devoted man, remarkable as an authority in his so much attention. particular line of study, and remarkable It was while he was still at Cambridge, because of his interesting personality; and in 1896, that he began those remarkable it was with this side of him that I naturally literary finds the story of which I want to came most in contact. set down here, and which may well be In his home, and among congenial friends, classed as among the romances of literature. he shone delightfully. Here, in animated As told me at odd times, partly by his wife, *Read before the Charaka Club, New York and partly by himself, it came to pass in mended. This seemed his great opportunity, the manner narrated below. and his friend, Dr. Taylor, the master of It seems that the book of the Apocrypha St. John’s College, generously providing entitled Ecclesiasticus, or The Wisdom of the funds, off he set to find this literary Jesus the Son of Sirach, was known to needle in an Egyptian haystack. Could scholars in the Greek version only, but anything seem more visionary? internal evidence pointed to a Hebrew It may be proper here to state that the original. Dr. Schechter had long been word genizah means a hiding place. All interested in this book, and had often synagogues it appears have some room in expressed the thought (so Mrs. Schechter which old books, old papers, old worn-out told me) that, had he but the time and the scrolls of the law, all the superseded frag­ means, he felt sure he could find an early ments of ecclesiastical machinery are stored Hebrew version. away, and—forgotten. The origin of this At Cambridge, he had as friends two custom arose from the desire to prevent learned ladies who unwittingly moved in anything containing the word, “God’’from the “mysterious way this wonder to per­ being profaned by its falling into the dis­ form.” These ladies, two sisters, Mrs. card. But, aside from this pious purpose, Lewis and Mrs. Gibson, were in the habit it happened, too, that books considered of traveling in the Holy Land, and were heterodox, or for any other reason, objec­ much interested in collecting manuscripts. tionable, were put into those lumber-rooms About to depart on their annual trip to to get them out of harm’s way (possibly Palestine, they asked Schechter what they also to allow the elect to have a peep at could do for him there. He told them (they them “unbeknownst”). themselves were unacquainted with Hebrew) These old genizahs have, consequently, that should they chance to come across any from time to time, given up rare literary seemingly old Hebrew writings, to procure treasures to those who have had the them, on the chance that they might prove hardihood to work in the dust and dirt interesting. and decay of centuries. The genizah of On their return, they brought him a small Cairo, or rather of its synagogue, at Fostat box of manuscripts. These consisted chiefly (where, as we will learn later, Maimonides of leases, bills of sale, and similar business lived) was however, particularly noted, papers, but among them he found, mirabile and had long been known to students, for dictu, a fragment in Hebrew of Ecclesias­ manuscripts had, from time to time, found ticus. Great was his excitement, and interest, their way out of it, and had fallen into an interest shared by his wife who was the hands of dealers in antiquities. Hence always his sympathetic companion. To the genizah of Cairo had become the her he reiterated the conviction that now Genizah par excellence. he felt more than ever sure that he could On arriving at Cairo, so the story goes, find the rest of the manuscript of which Schechter visited first the Grand Rabbi and the piece he had was but a fragment. (It asked permission to delve into the ruined was not much bigger than the palm of a synagogue of Fostat. The interview was hand.) He rightly divined that not Pales­ rather amusing. “What do you want to do tine, but Egypt was the real source of the there?” said the Rabbi. “I want to hunt writing and that it had come originally for old books,” replied Schechter. “Are from the “genizah” of the old synagogue there not plenty of new books?” was the near Cairo. response. Schechter had to admit the A providential illness now came to his incontestable truth of that assertion, but aid, and, for his convalescence a sojourn in urged that at present his own particular a warm climate was fortunately recom­ fancy lay only in the direction of old ones. It ended by his getting not only permission once a Coptic church, dated from the year, to explore, but to keep all he found! 1000. There were bills of sale, leases, deeds, The genizah was at the end of a gallery marriage contracts (and alas, also decrees and had to be entered by a ladder through of divorce), letters of recommendation to a hole in the wall. Of it he says: the congregation, begging letters, and inti­ One can hardly realize the confusion in a mate and homely papers of all kinds. And, genuine old genizah until one has seen it. among these, were found some autograph It is a battlefield of books, and the literary letters of both Maimonides and of his son! productions of many centuries have their share To me it seemed a marvelous thing to in the battle, and their disjecta membra are now have seen the actual handwriting of a man strewn over its area. Some of the belligerants so famous in medicine and so long dead, a have perished outright and are literally ground to dust in the terrible struggle for space, whilst man connected in my mind, in a hazy sort others, as if overtaken by a general crush, are of way, with Saladin and, so, with Scott’s, squeezed into big, unshapely lumps, which even “Talisman.” It, somehow, with a bound with the aid of chemical appliances can no brought the Middle Ages and all the longer be separated without serious damage to romance of the Crusades to my very door. their constituents.1 I could not get the thought out of my mind, Here, in darkness and heat, and amid the and so I took to reading and delving a bit dust and confusion of ages, he worked for myself.Kind friends at Columbia University several months, and at the end sent back helped me in various ways, and thinking to Cambridge, Eng., twenty-six large pack­ that my fellow members of the Charaka ing cases of manuscripts, containing, he Club, and other professional colleagues, estimated, no less than one hundred thou­ might find a history of old Dr. Maimonides sand fragments. This great collection, in­ of as much interest as I did, I put my estimable in its value to scholars, is now thoughts on paper and the following sketch deposited in a separate room of the Cam­ is the result. bridge University Library to which he But I feel that whatever there may be in donated it, and is known as the “Taylor- it, is all due to Schechter. He had a spring Schechter Collection.” It has, even now, of perennial enthusiasm that was too infec­ been only partially explored, but suffice it tious to be withstood. He had the faculty to say here, that it furnished to Schechter of interesting you in a subject which before many of the chapters of the lost might have been entirely foreign to your Hebrew version of Ecclesiasticus, which it thoughts, and for which, you had not was his ambition to find. Subsequent search perhaps had the slightest liking. For he was in other libraries, revealed more fragments, a delightful and sympathetic companion, so that a reasonably complete Hebrew and wherever he happened to pitch his version is now possible. It was in 1896 that conversational tent, there he evoked that Schechter made his discovery, and in 1899, “throwing about of brains,” which is the in collaboration with his friend Dr. Taylor, heart of all good talk, and also that humor­ there was published a formal edition of the ous badinage that banishes all dullness. Wisdom of Ben Sira.2 To me he ever seemed “Rabbi Ben Ezra” In addition to works of a theologic and in the flesh. Had he said: “Grow old along philosophic character, there was also found with me, the best is yet to be,” I would have a quantity of papers throwing light on the deemed it most natural and fitting. Nor every day life of the Middle Ages, for it would he have found me irresponsive. should be remarked that this synagogue, MAIMONIDES XA Hoard of Hebrew Mss. Studies in Judaism, series 2, 1908. To judge a man rightly, his character and 2 Ecclesiasticus. his influence, it is not sufficient to narrate the incidents of his life and to record his Cordova, “The Queen of Andalusia,” works unrelated to all else. One must seek had attained to her greatest glory about to project upon the hearer’s mind the social, two hundred years prior to Maimonides’ the intellectual and the political horizon birth, when the great Caliph, Abd-er- within which the man moved. One should Rahman iii, by uniting all the Saracen too, if this be possible, indicate the stage principalities of Spain under his one rule, of evolution of thought in the world’s had made her the capital of his caliphate. history in which the particular individual Under him and his successors Cordova found himself. became the seat of that rich store of Arabic When Tennyson lets Ulysses say: “I am science, literature, art and industry that a part of all that I have met,” he expresses made Saracenic civilization immeasurably a universal truth; for though it may be superior to anything found elsewhere in given to some great minds to alter and contemporaneous Europe. mould the age in which they live, yet all of When Maimonides was born, Cordova us, without exception, are the creation of had, it is true, fallen from her high estate. our time. We are the result of the totality The Arabs in Spain, unfortunately for of environment, both physical and spiritual, themselves, had brought with them from into which we happen to be born. Arabia, the interminable feuds that had I shall endeavor therefore, to show how been the source of those tribal wars which the subject of my paper was influenced by were the chief entertainment of their desert that great moving, breathing and highly lives. As one writer says: “The very origin interesting world in which he lived. While of these feuds being long forgotten, they doing this I hope also to indicate why it naturally were irreconcilable.” Hence it is that he has survived in men’s minds, happened that, through internal jealousies, while others, far greater in their day and a strong and united government could his, and occupying exalted positions, have never be maintained for long, and that the been all but forgotten except by a few Saracenic power in Spain finally collapsed, students of history mousing among Arabic more from internal decay and disunion than manuscripts. from actual conquest by its Visigothic Here at the outset let me say that the Christian neighbors. picture which I wish to present to you is a The Caliph of Cordova, who reigned mosaic for which other men have furnished about fifty years before Maimonides’ birth, all the stones. My task has been, merely, had invited, in 1086, a wild and warlike to arrange these stones and to apply the confederation of Berber tribes, known as the small amount of cement that joins them. Almoravides to help him beat back the Moses ben Maimon, or to give his name Spaniards from the north. These came, and in full in Arabic, Abou Imran Musa ’ben coming stayed, for they liked the land so Maimon ibn Abd Allah, was born in the city well that they took Cordova for their own, of Cordova, Spain on March 30, 1135. and conquered those whom they had been He is usually known by the Greek form invited to help. They were a set of rude of his name, Maimonides, and among fanatics, and under their rule the pre­ Rabbinical writers as Rambam, from the eminence of Cordova soon declined. It letters of his name. He came of a family takes some time, however, to destroy a of scholars. His ancestors (and it is said he civilization, and when Maimonides was could trace his lineage to David) had for born it is reasonable to suppose that much several generations been noted for learning of the old culture still remained, and, as and for culture. His father, himself an Jew and Moslem mingled on a footing of author of some repute, directed his son’s friendship and equality, his family must education. have associated with the best. This then, was the environment of his But the eternal spirit of the chainless mind early years, and under the guide of Arabic cannot be confined within metes and bounds, masters, the boy was instructed in Greek even though these be bolstered by law philosophy, in medicine and in science, both temporal and ecclesiastical. Bold while his father took charge of his religious thinkers such as Erigena and Abelard and and Hebrew education. their like raised doubts on theological And here it may be proper to pause questions, doubts that naturally were ban­ awhile and view the historical setting in ned by the obscurantism of the times. which he moved, and to glance at the Reason in Europe was only just beginning European activities in the twelfth century. to dawn. For though the hatreds and prejudices In the field of literature the troubadours which religious differences engender, as in the south of France had caught much of nothing else does, had excited a seemingly the Saracenic spirit, and from Provence impassable wall between Christendom and there poured forth a stream of gay and I slam, nevertheless by unseen channels joyous songs in praise of love, of the ladies, there must have been a certain amount of of chivalry and not infrequently, too, in mental and spiritual interchange, for some­ satire of the clergy. how in all times the great in spirit manage In art the great outlet was in ecclesiastical to touch hands And as Europe was architecture, and those magnificent cathe­ affected by Saracenic thought, so too must drals of France, England, Germany and Maimonides and his compeers have been Italy were constructed whose beauty and affected by European culture. grandeur still enthrall the beholder. Into the political field we need not go, In Spain at this period perhaps the two except to state that out of the anarchy and most outstanding names was that of Avi­ confusion of the Dark Ages, law, order and cenna (980-1037), the “Prince of Phy­ stable government were slowly beginning sicians,” whose great work on medicine to emerge. The most outstanding activity was still used as a textbook in Europe as of the Christian world was the participation late as the seventeenth century, and that of in the Crusades. In this attempt, impelled Maimonides’ contemporary and townsman, by the highest idealism, however much it A verroes (1126-1198). The latter by his bold may have been marred at times by brutal and unorthodox speculations greatly stimu­ materialism, Europe sought to efface what lated philosophic thought and discussion, was felt to be an affront to Christianity. but perhaps his greatest claim to considera­ Men, money and effort were again and tion is the fact that he introduced the again lavishly expended upon an adventure writings, and with them the spirit of that at the last ended in failure. Neverthe­ Aristotle to the thinking world. In this way less, the contact with the more refined and Greek thought, through an Arab medium, cultured civilization of the Saracens paved and largely, as we will subsequently see, the way for European culture. Not only through the influence of Maimonides, was many new arts, but, above all, science and brought to European minds. philosophic thought were thus introduced. But to return to Maimonides. When he In Europe at this time theology was was thirteen years old another and greater predominant. The church held that the disaster than its capture by the Almora- function of reason was to be the hand­ vides befell Cordova, for the city was taken maiden of religion, ancilla fidei. Reason by the Almohades. They were the puritan was used to explain, to justify, but never sect of the Mohammedans. They came to examine critically, still less to controvert, from Morocco, and were bent on reforming the dogmas of creed. The business of scholas­ Islam, which, to their minds, had lapsed ticism was, therefore, to support the church. into practices far removed from the teach­ ings of the Prophet. It was they who raised but by birth a Kurd, one of that warlike the cry “the Koran or the sword.” To them, nation that is today the curse of its Armen­ books, science, art, were all mere snares of ian neighbors. His father, being governor of the devil to lead man from true religion. Damascus, Saladin was brought up at the They burnt the famous library of the Caliph, court of the Caliph Noureddin. On the El Hakim 11 and gave nonbelievers the latter’s death, Saladin, by military and choice between Mohammedanism, death, administrative ability, finally succeeded or banishment. in uniting under his own rule all the various The Maimon family chose the last, and eastern Moslem principalities, till his king­ after wandering for some years in Christian dom stretched from the mountains of Spain crossed to Africa, and settled in Fez Kurdistan to the Libyan desert. in 1160. Why they chose what might seem After many conflicts he finally succeeded to be the very den of the lion is not clear, in taking Jerusalem, which remained a except, perhaps, that the ruler of Fez at Moslem city from that time down to its that time was a man who did not trouble capture during the Great War by General himself with the religious views of his Allenby and, such is the irony of fate, by subjects so long as they, at least outwardly, his East Indian Moslem troops! Saladin conformed to the state religion. This the finally all but forced the Franks entirely family evidently did, but the irksomeness of out of Palestine, limiting them to a small such a life is self-evident. strip by the sea. It was his ambition to As the Jews in Morocco lived in an atmos­ restore the unity of Islam, and in this he phere charged with suspicion and antagon­ succeeded. And all this he did without ism, and under conditions in which tempta­ resorting to the common expedients of his tions to forswear the old faith and to age. Treachery, deceit, ferocious cruelty, the embrace Mohammedanism were many and massacre of the innocent and helpless, these strong, Maimonides while living there wrote traits so common with the Crusaders, were a work on apostasy, in which he exhorted foreign to him. Lane-Poole, the Oriental his coreligionists to abide by Judaism. scholar, sums him up as follows: Centuries of martyrdom have taught the Jew to be practical, to bend before the The popular conception of his character has not erred. Magnanimous, chivalrous, gentle, storm lest he break, and to feel that gener­ sympathetic, pure in heart and life, ascetic and ally it is better to live for his faith than to laborious, simple in his habits, fervently devout, die for it. So we find even Maimonides and only severe in his zeal for the faith, he has saying: “If a man asks me: ‘Shall I be been rightly held to be the type and pattern of slain, or utter the formula of Islam?’ I Saracenic chivalry. answer: ‘Utter the formula and live.’ ” After remaining a few years in Morocco, Maimonides and his family settled in the family embarked for Palestine and Fostat, or Old Cairo, situated a short from there went to Cairo, which henceforth distance from the newer and more populated was their home. This was in 1165, when town. From the moment of his arrival to Maimonides was thirty years old. Just the end of his life, Maimonides lived in an three years before, Salah-ed-din, better almost continuous atmosphere of war, for known as Saladin, had deposed the feeble of Saladin’s twenty-four years of reign, caliph of Cairo and made himself sultan but eight were spent at his capital, the over Egypt. rest being passed in the field. Saladin is one of the great romantic figures The Cairo of the twelfth century was a of his time, and he divides with Richard populous, well-built and cultured city. The the Lion-Hearted of England, our interest many public buildings that still remain in Scott’s “Talisman.” He was not an Arab, testify to the skill and taste of the architects of that day. Among the institutions that of Cairo, the practice of medicine was his then flourished we may note three colleges, support during life. devoted to the study of religion, of philos­ We think New York, the city of “watch ophy, and of the sciences. Saladin’s vizier, your step,” and “step lively” a very busy the Kahdi-el-Fadil, was a learned and place, and that a successful doctor, rushing enlightened man. Of him it was said that about in his high-powered car, has about his official papers were noted for the literary all that he can do. But Cairo in the elegance of their style. He was wholly in twelfth century must have been as busy sympathy with the designs of his master, as New York in the twentieth, to judge and bent all his energies to carry out his from the following letter that Maimonides reforms. He soon recognized the worth of wrote to a disciple and translator of his Maimonides, making him his own physician, works, Ibn Tibbon by name, who lived in and later causing him to be appointed court Provence. physician to Saladin himself. It can well be imagined that in so con­ With respect to your wish to come here to me, I cannot but say how greatly your visit would genial an atmosphere as Cairo then pre­ delight me, for I truly long to communicate with sented, Maimonides’ deeply studious nature you, and would anticipate our meeting with expanded to the utmost. He had written even greater joy than you. Yet I must advise much while in Fez, having at twenty-three you not to expose yourself to the perils of the years of age completed a work, “The voyage, for beyond seeing me, and my doing Calculations of the Calendar,” which all I could to honor you, you would not derive showed much astronomical and mathemati­ any advantage from your visit. Do not expect cal knowledge. He had also begun one of to be able to confer with me on any scientific his most famous books, “ A Commentary subject for even one hour of the day or night; on the Jewish Law.” Yet it was in Cairo for the following is my daily occupation: that his intellect expanded to its fullest I dwell in Fostat and the Sultan resides at and here his literary activities showed Kahiro; these two places are two Sabbath days’ their finest products. It may be of interest journey [one and one-half miles] distant from each other. My duties to the Sultan are very to note that, for the most part his works heavy. I am obliged to visit him every day, early though in Arabic, are written in Hebrew in the morning, and when he, or any of his characters, just as the Yiddish of today is children, or any of the inmates of his harem are written. Translations exist in Hebrew, Span­ indisposed, I dare not quit Kahiro, but must ish, Latin, German, English, etc. stay through the greater part of the day in the It was a firm principle with Maimonides palace. It also frequently happens that one or that no man should make money through two of the officers fall sick and I must attend his religious learning. In this he reminds us to their healing. Hence, as a rule, I repair to of Spinoza, who, though offered a professor­ Kahiro very early in the day, and even if nothing ship of philosophy, remained during his unusual happens I do not return to Fostat until short life a grinder of lenses in Amsterdam. the afternoon. Then I am almost dying with Maimonides, when he first came to Cairo, hunger. I find the antechambers filled with was a dealer in precious stones, and was in people, both Jews and Gentiles, nobles and common people, judges and bailiffs, friends and partnership with his brother David. The foes, a mixed multitude who await the time of death of the latter, shipwrecked in the my return. I dismount from my animal, wash Indian Ocean, meant to him not only the my hands, go forth to my patients, and entreat loss of a beloved brother but also the loss them to bear with me while I partake of some of all the capital of the business, so that light refreshment, the only meal I take in Maimonides turned to medicine as a liveli­ twenty-four hours. Then I go forth to attend hood, and though he soon became the to my patients, write prescriptions and direc­ chief rabbi of the large Jewish community tions for their several ailments. Patients go in and out until nightfall, and sometimes even, book in the Middle Ages. Maimonides I solemnly assure you, until two hours and more dwells on the importance of temperance in in the night. I converse with them, and prescribe all things, recommending a philosophic and for them, while lying down from sheer fatigue; religious resignation to the inevitable; not and when night falls I am so exhausted that to be much elated by good fortune or too I can scarcely speak. In consequence of this, no much depressed by ill; to observe “virtue” Israelite can have any private interview with me, except on the Sabbath day. On that day in the Aristotelian sense, namely of taking the whole congregation, or at least, the majority, the golden mean between the extremes of comes unto me after the morning service, when too much and too little. I instruct them as to their proceedings during He concludes: the whole week; we stay together a little until For the preservation of health and for length noon, when they depart. Some of them return of days, above all moral purity and spiritual and read with me, after the afternoon service, activity are necessary, whereas a loose life will until evening prayers. In this manner I spend bring one quickly to the grave. One must there­ the day. I have here related to you only a part fore strive to attain perfect self-control. But it is of what you would see if you were to visit me. only those who draw that moral strength from This letter, so full of human feeling and philosophy and religion that can attain to such dramatic action, gives a picture of life in a state. Cairo more vivid than volumes of descrip­ His book on poisons is perhaps the most tion. And yet, unworthy though the sus­ widely known of his medical works. It was picion may be, I cannot help wondering written by request of the Vizier Kahdi- as I read it, if Maimonides feared that his el-Fadil, and held its own for many cen­ friend, Ibn Tibbon, whom he had never turies. In an interesting German translation3 seen, might prove to be an unwelcome guest. I found the following directions for treating Perhaps he dreaded the coming of a too poisoned wounds which are as applicable enthusiastic admirer, who might have liked today as they were when they were written. to play the Boswell to his Johnson, and The first thing to do is to apply a tight band might have stayed for not less than a year. above the bitten part so as to prevent the poison How, in the face of so much daily routine, gaining entrance to the body. While this is being he managed to write the large number of done, an assistant should make incisions in and works that are credited to his pen, is indeed about the wound, and then, after rinsing one’s remarkable. The following are his medi­ mouth with oil, or with oil and wine, the wound cal works alone: “Aphorisms from various should be thoroughly sucked, being careful to medical writers,” “Commentaries on Hip­ spit out everything taken into the mouth. He pocrates,” “Compendium of Galen’s who so sucks the wound should have no sore Works,” “Translation of Avicenna,” “Sani­ places in the mouth, nor any carious teeth. tary Regulations,” “Notes on Dietetics for Should sucking be impossible, cupping may be Saladin,” “Ethics,” “Consultation on Vari­ resorted to. ous Accidents,” “On Food,” “On Medica­ Then follows a long list of applications to ments,” “On Poisons,” “OnHaemorrhoids,” be made to the wound, of medicines to be “On Sexual Relations,” “On Gout,” “On taken internally, and of the diet to be Asthma,” “On Physiology,” “On Stomach, observed. Among other external applica­ Brain,” etc. tions, he recommends that a pigeon be split His work, “Sanitary Regulations,” was from the front and laid, opened out, upon written for Saladin’s successor, Afdal, a the wound, and that this be repeated as soon weak, silly and sensual man, and he ven­ as the pigeon’s body has become cold. It tured on advice, which though sound, was is interesting to note that among the on that account probably not acceptable. negroes of the South, this method is still Translated into Latin, it was a popular 3 Virchow Archiv, Vol. 57. used for the bites of rattlesnakes and I have looked in vain to find any mention of moccasins, but chickens are used in place of this fact in the translation of his treatise. pigeons. Who will not say that this method This may raise a justifiable doubt as to the of the day of Maimonides may not have prevalence of such a practice. filtered down through the Sudan into His two greatest works were “A Com­ the Congo and so been brought by captive mentary on the Jewish Law” (the Talmud) negro slaves to America? Although Maim­ and his “Guide of the Perplexed,” which onides advocates many curious applications will be alluded to later. Suffice it to say here, to be made to the wound (such as croco­ that aside from the philosophic, theologic, dile’s fat, pigeons’, ducks’ and goats’ dung and religious discussions contained in them, mixed with honey) yet he is careful con­ there is much information on physics, stantly to reiterate the necessity for ligation mathematics, astronomy, anatomy, and and suction. especially hygiene. As hygiene and dietetics He takes up seriatim the bite of the viper, form an integral part of Jewish law, it is not the sting of the scorpion, of spiders, bees surprising to find in his “Ethics” that he and wasps. In speaking of the bite of mad emphasizes the duty of being healthy. dogs, after saying he will not dwell on the He saw no necessary connection between symptoms of rabies, for man instinctively saintliness and dirt, in great contrast to shuns a mad dog as he does a poisonous the hermits and ascetics of Europe and serpent, he describes in a few words the Africa. He dwells on the importance of rabic dog: “He shuns his fellow dogs and a sound body for a sound mind and soul. slinks along the walls of the crooked alleys He discourses minutely on the question of without barking.” This is a brief but graphic diet, the relative nature of foods, the effects description of “dumb rabies,” the form of the seasons, the care of the bowels, the prevalent in the Orient today. After describ­ importance of sleep and exercise, and the ing the usual treatment, he recommends questions of clothing and bathing. Most that the wound be kept open forty days, diseases, he assorts, are the result of over­ which would seem to show that the eating, of alcohol, of lack of exercise, and of long period of incubation of rabies was sexual excesses. Any disturbance of excre­ recognized. tion will cause illness. By following his “Of all bites,” he says, “that by a fasting simple rules good health can be assured, man is the worst,” and after going into vari­ provided the body has not been previously ous details, speaks of the gangrene that may weakened by disease, by bad inheritance or result. Probably, in this particular, Eastern bodily defect, or by some epidemic. All this conditions are different from Western, for sounds familiarly modern. Though long be­ he was an accurate observer. fore Seneca had said: “Man does not die, He takes up the prophylaxis of poisoning, he poisons himself.” More recently Balzac and from the discussion of the changes has said: “Man digs his grave with his produced in foods by poisons, one gathers teeth.” that the practice of removing one’s enemies Even more modern in spirit, so modern in by putting poison in their food was tolerably fact that they might have appeared in the common. Ox blood he considers particularly weekly bulletin of our own department of poisonous, which recalls the botulism of health, is a list of qualifications he gives today. Very curious is his mention of that make a city a fit one to live in. The women ridding themselves of objectionable following are some of the requirements: husbands by mixing menstrual blood in (1) A proficient physician; (2) a skilful sur­ their food. geon; (3) proper bathing facilities; (4) sewer­ In a period when the use of poisoned age ; (5) a fresh water supply; (6) a place of weapons in war was supposedly common, worship; (7) a proper school; (8) a scribe or notary public (9) a court of justice; hovering near, may have heard them boast (10) a charity organization. of good health, and how in many parts of In medicine Maimonides showed the Europe the belief in the evil eye, and the influence of Aristotle, for he was a ration­ wearing of charms against it, prevail with alist in the sense that he believed in testing people of low and high degree, when we all things by the intellect, and while not consider all these things, I say, we can unmindful of the wisdom of those who had realize how far, how very far, Maimonides preceded him, and accepting the inspiration was ahead of his and even of our own times. of the Bible, yet he was disinclined to Maimonides wrote on the etiology of accept blindly mere authority for truth, or disease. His work “De causis et indiciis to rely on precedent rather than on experi­ morborum” exists in a Latin manuscript ence. He was essentially a forward looking (itself a translation from the Arabic) in man, and one of his maxims was, “the the libraries of Paris and of Oxford. A eyes are set in the front of the head, not commentator remarks of it: the back.” He was opposed to poly­ The very manner in which he undertakes his pharmacy, and would not use drugs he had task in this his greatest medical work, the very not himself tested, or that had not been fact that seven hundred years before the vouched for by good authority. This is medicine of today, he already looks upon medi­ what he says of drugs and of treatment in cine from the etiological point of view, his general: search for the causes of illness, points to the man’s keen intellect and explains why he was Now most physicians are greatly in error in regarded as such a great physician and rose to that they think that medicine strengthens the such fame. health; it weakens and perverts it, and for this reason has Aristotle said that most of the Rightly to estimate this attitude of mind, patients who die do so through the medicines we must remember that in Maimonides’ of the physician. When the interference of the day, both in Christendom and in Islam, physician is indicated, his task should be to disease was looked upon either as the evi­ sustain the patient’s strength, and to promote dence of the workings of malign spirits, or, Nature in her effort to repair. Most physicians in case of pestilence, as the manifestation however act wrongly, and whilfc they think they of displeasure that an ever merciful and help Nature, they hinder and destroy her loving God visited upon an erring people. beneficent activity. This latter point of view not only involved Living in an age in which the belief a shocking contradiction of ideas as well in magic and incantations and in astrology as ideals, but was absolutely fatal to was universal, and in a country where the scientific inquiry. wearing of charms and amulets was, and for Perhaps I cannot better close my account that matter is today, generally practiced, of Maimonides, the physician, than by it is refreshing to find that he condemns all quoting what his friend, the Arab poet and these beliefs and customs, and that he ridi­ Kahdi, Alsaid I bn Sina Almulk, wrote of cules the idea that the particular position of him: the planets at the moment of a man’s birth Galen’s art heals only the body, could have any influence upon the course But Abou Amram’s the body and soul. of his life. When we consider that today With his wisdom he could heal the sickness of many people (and not uneducated ones ignorance. either), will wear an iron ring, or carry a potato If the moon could but submit to his art He would deliver her of her spots at the time of full or a horse-chestnut in the pocket against moon, rheumatism; or a rabbit’s foot for general Cure her of the periodic defects, “good luck,” or that they will “knock on And, at the time of her conjunction, save her from wood” to exorcise the evil spirit who, ever waning. I have so far, as is fitting in a medical sparrow,” which runs all through the Old society, dwelt almost wholly on the medical Testament, he holds must be taken in a work of Maimonides, but in the great world purely allegorical sense. He is at great pains of thought it is as a philosopher and as a to insist on the incorporeal and purely theologian that he is most noted. I will, spiritual nature of God, and those who therefore, if only for the sake of completing believe in a personal Providence he regards my picture, give a brief sketch of his two as little better than idolaters. principal books. In these works he shows “Providence,” he claims “reigns in a that same keen spirit of intellectual freedom, certain, broad manner over humanity, and that desire to test all things by a mind holds the sway over the destinies of na­ untrammelled by the authority of antiquity, tions”; but he utterly denies its workings which we have seen is so characteristic of in the single event that may befall the his medical writings. individual. It is the business of the indi­ His most famous work is the “Moreh vidual, he holds, to know the laws of Nebukim,” or “Guide of the Perplexed,” nature and to shape his behavior in accord­ written in 1190. It was written in Arabic (but ance with them; hence the importance to in Hebrew characters as was the custom) and all of the study of the natural sciences and entitled “Dalalat-al-Ha’ivin,” and was trans­ of medicine. “The soul, and the soul only, lated into Hebrew in 1204 by Ibn Tibbon. is immortal, and the reward of virtue con­ Of the object of this work Maimonides says: sists in its (strictly spiritual) bliss in a world to come; while the punishment of I have composed this work neither for the vice is the Toss of the soul.’ ” common people, nor for beginners, nor for those Through the labors of Avicenna and of who occupy themselves only with the Law as it A verroes the writings of Aristotle had been is handed down, without concerning themselves made familiar to Arabic thought, and with with its principles. The design of this work is rather to promote the true understanding of the the writings of Abraham ibn Doud (1110- real spirit of the Law, to guide those religious 1180) these ideas became predominant in persons, who, adhering to the Law, have studied Jewish thought as well. Maimonides was philosophy and are embarrassed by the con­ strongly influenced by the philosophy of tradictions between the teachings of philosophy Aristotle, a philosophy which brought out and the literal sense of the Torah (Pentateuch). in sharp relief the contrast of concepts founded on pure reason, and of those Accordingly he seeks to reconcile the based upon a Scripture held to be inspired. conflict between science and philosophy Maimonides, accepts in general both the on the one hand, and the Bible on the philosophy and the cosmogony of Aristotle other. To him there exists no contradiction and he tries to reconcile them both with between the truths that God has revealed Biblical revelation. At various points he and the truths which the human mind has was, however, forced to depart from the discovered. Miracles, while they cannot ideas of his great master. Aristotle, for always be traced to their actual causes, instance, assumes that the universe never cannot, he maintains, have been wrought was created, that it has existed from all in contradiction to the immutable laws of eternity. This view was so hopelessly nature. This was a bold step, for a miracle opposed to the account of the creation explained, ceases to be a miracle at all, found in the book of Genesis, that Mai­ and hence by implication at least, he denied monides was obliged to reject it. the very possibility of miracles. Though classed with the rationalists The anthropomorphic conception of the Maimonides was by no means a materialist. Deity, the God that “numbers the hairs As one of his biographers says:4 “He not of our head and watcheth the fall of the 4 Yellin, David. Life of Maimonides. only introduced an intellectual principle, felt or seen, never claims infallibility, and he also applied a spiritualizing principle. is ever ready to change its theories as The grossness, the materialism of medieval new facts come to light. Religion, which is religion could not survive the idealism of too often confounded with theology, has the Guide.” His work foreshadowed the not, and never can have, any conflict with higher criticism of the Bible of our day, and science. For true religion, the religion that is considered, I believe, the first attempt transcends all creeds, all churches, all at a scriptural exegesis, scientific both in Bibles, is a matter wholly of the spirit, a method and in spirit. matter of faith, it is “the substance of As a pioneer in this branch of speculation things hoped for, the evidence of things Maimonides deserves high praise, for that unseen,” and for the elucidation of this, man is truly great who opens up a new and scientific tests are useless. original path for the human mind, even The “Guide of the Perplexed” was one of though he himself may not be permitted Maimonides’ latest works, and though to travel far upon it. Turgot said he admired rumblings of the storm of controversy Columbus not so much for discovering a which it aroused were heard before his new world as for going out to hunt for it death and though the storm was anticipated on the strength of an opinion. by him, yet it was not for some years after That new world that Maimonides sought he had passed away that it broke in all its to discover, the world in which dogmatic fury. Those who leaned to the literal inter­ theology and science should dwell in unity, pretation of the Bible, the orthodox, were we know now does not and cannot exist. scandalized. They denounced as heretics, For we see what Maimonides could not and anathematized all who accepted his have seen, that this attempted reconciliation rationalistic views, and, as seems inevitable was, of course, a hopeless task, despite the in theologic disputes, much bitterness and vast store of learning and philosophic acumen even bloodshed followed. All of us know, and that he expended upon it. His was a sincere some of us can remember, the feelings attempt to bring mental peace and comfort engendered by the publication of Dar­ to those “perplexed” ones to whom the win’s “Origin of Species,” and even today work was addressed and doubtless failed there is a “fundamentalist” recrudescence not in this object. and that which Macaulay termed “the That Maimonides was no more successful bray of Exeter Hall” sounds loud through­ in actually effecting such a reconciliation, out the land. So we can picture what than those who have essayed the task in occurred in the thirteenth century and later, our own day, was not his fault. Failure lies in regard to the “Guide of the Perplexed.” in the very nature of the problem. The two Yet not only Jewish and Arab philosophy are, and always must remain, irreconcilable, was profoundly affected by it, but Christian for the reason that theology seeks to give theologians paid it high tribute. It was scientific precision to matters of history, of early translated into Latin, and in this form thought, and of feeling and to such, the was made accessible to the scholastics of the scientific method is inapplicable. And as thirteenth century. Maimonides was thus theology, furthermore, deals with subjects the direct means of introducing Aristot- which it considers derived from divine elianism to European thought. And it was revelation to mankind, it necessarily must this very introduction of Aristotelian ration­ be infallible and hence immutable; for he alism as opposed to theologic dogmatism who makes no mistakes has no need to that raised the same problems for Christian change. Science, on the other hand, deals thought that had presented themselves to with the properties of ponderable matter, Judaism, and as the “Guide of the Per­ things that can be weighed, measured, plexed” may, from the medieval standpoint, be considered as having solved the problem, is published without the introduction by the book was freely used by the savants of Maimonides. He seems to have done his the day. As Jacobs says:5 work for all time. It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the influ­ Maimonides died in Cairo in 1204, in his ence of Maimonides upon the greater scholastics seventieth year. In that part of the city on some of the most vital points of what may called Fostat, where he had lived both Jews be termed their natural theology. . . . , and Mohammedans observed a period of Alexander of Trales, Albertus Magnus and three days mourning. In Jerusalem, a Thomas Acquinus all use the arguments of general fast was appointed and public Maimonides, as they themselves acknowledge. ceremonies were observed. His body was The genius of Maimonides enabled both church taken to Tiberias, and his tomb became a and synagogue to overcome or evade the oppo­ place of pilgrimage. All joined in honoring sition, and retain allegiance to the Scriptures for him, and his reputation among scholars another six hundred years. has but increased with the centuries. His other great work is “The Com­ In considering the work of such a man, mentary on the Jewish Law.” The post- one cannot help asking the question, what Biblical Jewish writings (the principal one influence has he had on our own world of being the Talmud) contain a hugh mass thought? It is a matter difficult to measure, of legal decisions, precepts and practices, and yet when we consider how very modern mingled with miscellaneous matter of every he was in his methods of thinking, though conceivable kind, such as, medicine, mathe­ thoroughly saturated with Greek and Arab matics, agriculture, astrology, anecdotes philosophy, we cannot but feel that he forms and even fairy stories. Into this vast brush­ a very real and important link between our heap of knowledge Maimonides plunged, day and that splendid array of philosophers and after ten years’ labor emerged from it and scientists who were the ornament of the with a code so systematized and clarified, ancient world of Greek thought, whether in with the extraneous so separated from the Athens or Alexandria. He was one of those irrelevant as to make of it that clear and who held the torch of learning very high, workable basis for human intercourse which and who helped to keep the light of Knowl­ it has ever since remained for Judaism. It edge and of Reason burning through the is said that today no edition of the Talmud long night of the Middle Ages, until finally 6 Jewish Contributions to Civilization, New York, it should burst forth into that brightness of 1919. the Renaissance which illumines us still.