women after childbirth and Psalm 91, using either the first or last letters of
each verse, is for general protection.^67 Charms and incantations remained
popular in Jewish traditional medicine, especially for the treatment of eye
disease, headache and epilepsy.^68
The early modern period
The migration of Jewish physicians during the sixteenth to eighteenth
centuries, many with an Iberian background and trained in Italian medical
schools such as Padua and Pisa, brought modern medicine into the Ottoman
Empire. These Jewish doctors filled an important gap in the numbers of physi-
cians in the area and records indicate that they formed a larger proportion of
the population than the number of Jewish inhabitants might have indicated.^69
During this period there was a wide variety of medication available,
whether of animal, vegetable or mineral material, mostly based on locally
available products. One such, a potion made from almond milk, honey and
roses, was popular among Jerusalem’s Jews. Rabbi Rafael Mordekhai
Malkhi, who arrived in Jerusalem from Italy in 1676, mentions many items
in his writings.^70 He noted that the potion of almond milk, honey and roses
could cause diarrhoea and suggested the use of sweet wine with sugar.
However, he expressed his concern about the poor quality of medication on
offer and noted that much of what was available to the Jewish population
was based on superstition.^71 A poultice for the eyes was made from dried
plums and seedless raisins cooked with some spices such as cinnamon, ginger
or rose water. Malkhi’s grandson, Rabbi David de Silva, describes some
compounds in a chapter entitled Pri Megaddim, choice fruit, in his work Pri
Hadas. De Silva includes about 200 items in his pharmacopoeia, which Amar
notes shows similarities with works from Hippocrates and the early modern
period, as well as contemporary popular medicines.^72 At the same time the
baths and hot springs at Tiberias were restored during the sixteenth century
and thousands of Jewish, Muslim and Christian pilgrims came to enjoy the
curative power of the waters.^73
While modern medicine developed rapidly, especially in western coun-
tries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, much of the new
knowledge remained out of the reach of most of the population usually
because of cost. At the same time there was little popular understanding of
the pathology or physiology of disease and many could easily be fooled by
exaggerated claims of effectiveness. Consequently, a market grew from the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Britain and North America for
commercial medications supplied by apothecaries, as well as by untrained
and unlicensed providers of patent medicine.
Patent medicines were marketed effectively and their popularity can be
gauged by the existence of over 1000 such products by 1830. British
308 | Traditional medicine