ar place that the evil might
be stayed."[76]

The Jewish phylacteries must therefore be considered talismans and not
amulets. The writings contained in them are portions of the law and
are prepared in a prescribed manner. Three different kinds are used:
one for the head, another for the arm, and the third is attached to
the door-posts. The following is a Hebrew talisman supposed to have
considerable power: "It overflowed--he did cast darts--Shadai is all
sufficient--his hand is strong, and is the preserver of my life in all
its variations."[77]

Arnot gives an account of some Scottish talismans not unlike the
phylacteries of the Jews, which were for use on the door-posts. "On
the old houses still existing in Edinburgh," he says, "there are
remains of talismanic or cabalistical characters, which the
superstitious of earlier days had caused to be engraven on their
fronts. These were generally composed of some text of Scripture, of
the name of God, or, perhaps, of an emblematic representation of the
resurrection."[78]

The connection of astrology, or, as he calls it, "astronomy," and the
talisman with medicine is well portrayed by Chaucer in his picture of
a good physician of his day. He says:

"With us there was a doctor of phisike;
In al the world, was thar non hym lyk
To speke of physik and of surgerye,
For he wos groundit in astronomie.
He kept his pacient a ful gret del
In hourys by his magyk naturel;
Wel couth he fortunen the ascendent
Of his ymagys for his pacient."

Fosbrooke has divided talismans into five classes, examples of some of
which I have already given. They are: "1. The _astronomical_, with
celestial signs and intelligible characters. 2. The _magical_, with
extraordinary figures, superstitious words, and names of unknown
angels. 3. The _mixed_, of celestial signs and barbarous words, but
not superstitious, or with names of angels. 4. The _sigilla
planetarum_, composed of Hebrew numeral letters, used by astrologers
and fortune-tellers. 5. _Hebrew names and characters_. These were
formed according to the cabalistic art."

The doctrine of signatures bears a close resemblance to talismans,
and some believe that talismans have largely grown out of this
doctrine. Dr. Paris[79] defines the doctrine as the belief that "every
natural substance which possesses any medical virtues indicates, by an
obvious and well-marked external character, the disease for which it
is a remedy or the obje