298 | Traditional medicineJerusalem Talmud, a shorter and less complete compendium produced in the
land of Israel rather than in Babylonia, Rabbi Yochanan records that he
learned from a Roman woman that children’s faeces were a cure for scurvy.^21
Many non-medicinal remedies are also recorded in the Talmud. These
include the application of heat, e.g. by the use of warm cloths on the
abdomen and hot cups on the navel.^22 The beneficial effects of sunshine on
health were also known from Biblical times and recommended by the
rabbis.^23 Dietary considerations relative to health were also recorded in
detail in the rabbinic literature. The rabbis took care that, although patients
might be given advice about diet, for incurable patients some are of the
opinion that such patients be allowed to eat what they want.^24 Physicians
were advised that they should handle such situations with delicacy – not
giving specific difficult orders but saying the same: ‘don’t sleep in a damp
place or drink anything cold’, adding ‘lest you die like so and so’ – as this
will make a better impression.^25 Sick people were advised to avoid eating
gourds but could eat the more delicate food known as hatriyot. A physician
came to heal Rav Yirmiyahu and saw gourds present and exclaimed, ‘How
can I heal him – the Angel of Death is in this house!’^26 Eating beef, fat meat,
poultry, roasted eggs, cress, milk and cheese could make illness worse while
beneficial foods, which could heal sickness, included: cabbage, mangold,
camomile and small fish.^27 Specific foods for the sick would include the
gruel-like tisane or arsan, which is made from old peeled barley from the
bottom of the sieve, or fine barley flour. Schathitha, dried baked corn flour
mixed with honey, was prepared in thick and thin forms. The thick version
was used as nourishing food and the thin form as medication. A similar
product, made from lentil flour mixed with vinegar, was used as a remedy
for fever.^28
The most common forms of surgical treatments to be considered within
the framework of traditional medicine include bleeding and cupping.
Bleeding, by performing phlebotomy, is often mentioned in the Talmud,
sometimes accompanied by a special blessing, and was widely performed as
a medical treatment until as late as the nineteenth century. Sanhedrin 129b
gives directions for cupping and bleeding. Mar Samuel, the greatest of
Talmudic physicians, advised that a patient should fast before bloodletting
and take their time before resuming normal activities after the procedure.^29
The rabbis were concerned about the risks of bleeding and constructed a
calendar of propitious days for the procedure.
There is a voluminous literature in the Talmud and in the New Testa-
ment (Matthew10:1) about demons and their role in the causation of illness
and the rabbis believed that magic and the evil eye operated through them.
The demon aetiology is even susceptible to a theory of contagion. One
should not drink liquid left by another or the spirit that comes out of the
other, if he has a disease, can pose a mortal danger. Demons inhabit marshy