It is difficult to ascertain definitely the status of medicine among the ancient Hebrews. The Bible and particularly the Talmud deal primarily with laws and ethics, and in the course of discussions only do they refer to medicine as to other vital subjects of that day.
Neither the Bible nor the Talmud can be considered a medical treatise. The Mishnah1 does mention a medical work called "SeferRefuoth,"2 and the Talmud quotes a treatise on pharmacology, "Megillath Sammamin,"3 but neither of these books has survived the long centuries of Jewish migration. Nothing that has been transmitted from the ancient Hebrews can parallel the work of Hippocrates,4 of Galen5 and of Celsus,6 nor can one compare Jewish medicine with ancient Egyptian medicine as it is typified by the Papyrus Eber.7 Medical subjects as found in the Talmud and Rabbinic writings are of a