sen_."

With much of intense interest for the physician, and in spite of some
brave sayings about the value of science, there is not in it the
spirit of Aristotle or of Galen. It is true we find there one of the
earliest instances in literature of an accurate diagnosis confirmed
_post mortem_. A sheep of the Rabbi Chabiba had paralysis of the hind
legs. Rabbi Jemar diagnosed ischias, or arthritis, but Rabbina, who
was called in, said that the disease was in the spinal marrow. To
settle the dispute the sheep was killed, and Rabbina's diagnosis was
confirmed.

_The Role of Jewish Physicians in the Middle Ages_

In the early Middle Ages the Jewish physicians played a role of the
first importance as preservers and transmitters of ancient knowledge.
With the fall of Rome the broad stream of Greek science in western
Europe entered the sud of mediaevalism. It filtered through in three
streams--one in South Italy, the other in Byzantium, and a third
through Islam. At the great school of Salernum in the tenth, eleventh
and twelfth centuries, we find important Jewish teachers; Copho II
wrote the Anatomia Porci, and Rebecca wrote on fevers and the foetus.
Jews were valued councillors at the court of the great Emperor
Frederick. With the Byzantine stream the Jews seem to have had little
to do, but the broad, clear stream which ran through Islam is dotted
thickly with Hebrew names. In the eastern and western Caliphates and
in North Africa were men who to-day are the glory of Israel, and
bright stars in the medical firmament. Three of these stand out
preeminent. The writings of Isaac Judaeus, known in the Middle Ages as
Monarcha Medicorum, were prized for more than four centuries. He had a
Hippocratic belief in the powers of nature and in the superiority of
prevention to cure. He was an optimist and held strongly to the
Talmudic precept that the physician who takes nothing is worth
nothing. Rabbi ben Ezra was a universal genius and wanderer, whose
travels brought him as far as England. His philosophy of life Browning
has depicted in the well-known poem, whose beauty of diction and
clarity of thought atone for countless muddy folios.

_Maimonides: Prince Among Physicians_

But the prince among Jewish physicians, whose fame as such has been
overshadowed by his reputation as a Talmudist and philosopher, is the
Doctor Perplexorum--_dux, director, demonstrator, neutrorum
dubitantium et errantium!_--Moses Maimonides. Cordova boas