which
he regrets were by no means held in observance, "but that there are
still many among Christian persons who desiring the infirmities of
their bodies be cured by illicit means, and especially by the service
of Jews and other infidels. . . ." It was at Mantua that a Jewish
physician, Abraham Conath, established a printing press, from which
the first Hebrew works were issued.

_Names of Distinction in Later Centuries_

Throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries in
France, Germany, and Italy we meet many distinguished names in the
profession, and in his _Geschichte der Juedischen Aertz_ Landau pays a
very just tribute to their work. Only a few are met with in England.
Isaac Abendana, a Spaniard, practised in Oxford and lectured on Hebrew
at Magdalen College. We have at the Bodleian Jewish almanacs which lie
issued at the end of the seventeenth century, and a great Latin
translation of Mishnah. He afterwards migrated to Cambridge. A more
important author was Jacob de Castro Sarmento, a Portuguese Jew, who
became licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1725, and
Fellow of the Royal Society in 1730. There is in the Bodleian an
interesting broadsheet from the Register of the London Synagogues
respecting charges made when his name was proposed at the Royal
Society. He contributed many papers to the Philosophical Transactions,
and was the author of several works. In the eighteenth century Jean
Baptiste de Silva, of a Portuguese Jewish family, became one of the
leading physicians of Paris, consulting physician to Louis XV, and the
friend of Voltaire, who remarks, "_C'etait un de ces medecins que
Moliere n'eut ni pu ni ose rendre ridicules_." One of the special
treasures of my library is a volume of the Henriade superbly bound by
Padeloup, and a presentation copy from Voltaire to de Silva, given me
when I left Baltimore by my messmates in "The Ship of Fools" (a dining
club). Voltaire's inscription reads as follows:

"_A Monsieur Silva, Esculape Francois. Recevez cet hommage de votre
frere en Apollon. Ce Dieu vous a laisse son plus bel heritage, tous
les Dons de l'esprit, tous ceux de la raison, et je n'eus que des
Vers, helas, pour mon partage._"

_The Achievement of Recent Years_

In the nineteenth century, with the removal of the vexatious
restrictions, the Jew had a chance of reaching his full development,
and he has taken a position in the medical profession comparable to
that oc