The Papyrus Ebers was supposed by its discoverer to have been compiled
about the time when Moses was living in Egypt, a century before the
Exodus. There is no evidence in the Bible that the Jews brought with
them from the land of their captivity any of the medical lore which
that and other papyri not much later reveal. It is not certain that in
the whole of the Bible there is any distinct reference to a medicine
for internal administration. It is assumed that Rachel wanted the
mandrakes which Reuben found to make a remedy for sterility, but
that is not definitely stated. Nor is it certain that the Hebrew word
Dudaim, translated mandrakes, meant the shrub we know by that name.
Violets, lilies, jasmin, truffles, mushrooms, citrons, melons, and
other fruits have been proposed by various critics. There are three
passages in Jeremiah where Balm of Gilead is mentioned in a way which
may have meant that it was to be used as an internal remedy. These are
c. viii. v. 12, c. xlvi. v. 11, and c. li. v. 8. In two of these the
expression “take balm” is used, but it is quite possible to understand
this as meaning employ balm, and in all the passages the sense is
metaphorical.
The Mishnah, the book of Jewish legends, which forms part of the
Talmud, mentions a treatise on medicines believed to have been compiled
by Solomon. Hezekiah is said to have “hidden” this work for fear that
the people should trust to that wisdom rather than to the Lord. The
Talmud also cites a treatise on pharmacology called Megillat-Sammanin,
but neither of these works has been preserved. In the Talmud an
infusion of onions in wine is mentioned as a means of healing an issue
of blood. It was necessary at the same time for someone to say to the
patient, “Be healed of thine issue of blood.” This remedy and the
formula to be spoken are strongly reminiscent of Egypt.
The Talmud, though it was compiled in the early centuries of our era,
undoubtedly reflects the Jewish life and thought of many previous
ages, and consequently indicates fairly enough the condition of
therapeutics among the ancient Hebrews. Among its miscellaneous items
are cautions against the habit of taking medicine constantly also
against having teeth extracted needlessly. It advises that patients
should be permitted to eat anything they specially crave after. Among
its aphorisms are salt after meals, water after wine, onions for worms,
peppered wine for stomach disorders, injection of turpentine for stone
in the bladder. People may eat more before 40, drink more after 40.
Magic is plentifully supplied for the treatment of disease. To cure
ague, for instance, you must wait by a cross-road until you see an ant
carrying a load. Then you must pick up the ant and its load, place them
in a brass tube which you must seal up, saying as you do this, “Oh ant,
my load be upon thee, and thy load be upon me.”
Towards the time of Christ the sect of the Essenes, ascetic in their
habits and communistic in their principles, cultivated, according to
Josephus, the art of medicine, “collecting roots and minerals” for this
purpose. Their designation may have been derived from this occupation.