The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-03-22
MOSAIC HEALTH LAWS.
Restrictions by Which the Jews Avoid
Many Diseases.
THE TALMUDlC REGULATIONS,
The Peculiar Prohibitions OF the Mosaic
Law Prevent scrofuious and Tubercu-
lar Compiaints-whatJ jews May and
May Not Eat-BibIe Rules.

| May Not Eat-BibIe Rules.
The Mosaic Law prohibits all shcllfsh
and also creeping things, including all
| insects and animalcules that can be dis
cerned by the naked eye. Accordingly,
| the obscrvant jew carefully abstains from
anything which has decayed or turned
putrid. He must not partake of tainted
milk, nor drink impure water; and We
can thus understand how, oftentimes, the
| Jews escaped from the plague, from ty-
| phoid, and other kindred diseases. The
cry during the Middle Ages was that the
wells were poisoned; SO they were, but
| the poison consisted of decayed animal
matter from which the Jews kept aloof.
| Exodus xii. 81 enacts the flesh that is
| torn must not be eaten. Levitious xvii.
! 10, 16, prohibits the flesh of any animal
that has died of itself. The rabbinical
law requires the Jew likewise to abstain
from flesh OF any animal that is not killed
| in the prescribed way, or is found on in
| spection to be diseased; and the direc-
tions given in Talmud on this point arc
most minute, and display q profound
knowledge of physiology. An animal,
the lungs of which ere in any way affected
| by tubercles, has always been by Jews
considered unfit for food.
| But it is only quite recently that the
danger OF eating the flesh of cattle suffer
| ing from pleuro- pneumonia has been gen.
| orally admitted. In corroboration OF this
point, / would refer to the evidence OF
DR.. Drysdale before a medical conference
ct Leeds, and of DR.. Behrend, whose ar
| ticle in the Nineteenth Century, Septem-
| ber, 1889, deserves attention. Voluminous
evidence also on this point was furnished
at the international Congress Of Hygiene
held recently.
The Jewish law enforces strict examine
| tion of the lungs in the case of cattle
but, strangely enough dispenscs with it
in the case Of poultry, hitherto deemed
equally liable to tuberculosis. DR.. Koch,
however, has pointed out to the Interna-
tional Medical Congress of 1890 that the
tubercle cultures from fowls were quite
distinct species and innocuous to man.
You are aware that, for purposes OF life
assurance, inquiry is invariably made into
the family history and the causes OF death
| of the near relations of the person pro-
posing for assurance; and especially as to
whether any cases OF consumption have
occurred in his family.
My own experience, which extends over
thirty years, agrees with that of numer-
GUS physicians, and can confidently as
sert that Jews are remarkably free from
scrofulous and tubercular complaints. II
! is an established fact that environment
has much to do with liability to consump-
| tion. The disease can be contracted even
| by the inhalation of bacilli in the sputum
| of the patient, SO that it would be absurd
! to claim for the Jews absolute immunity
from the malady. Copious statistics, how
| ever go far to establish its comparative
rarity among the Jews.
The desire to avoid parasitic and in
| fictitious maladies, which, among the gen
eral public, is SO essentially of modern
growth, appears to have always dominated
the hygienic laws of the Jews. Those
animals are forbidden which are more
particularly liable to parasites. And as it
is in the blood that germs of disease cir
culate, an additional safeguard has been
| provided by the injunction which requires
| that even clean animals, when s1aug htered,
should be drained OF their blood before
| being served for food.
Modern science, moreover, cannot but
| admire the wisdom OF the lawgiver who,
in the days OF old enjoined removal and
isolation Of the patient, disinfection Of
| the clothing and other safeguards TO pre-
| vent the spread of the disease. Where
| contagion attached to garments, or a
| house was found insanitary and danger
| Gus to health, the priest who, in olden
time, acted as the Jewish physician and
| local sanitary authority, was empowered
| to enforce their destruction. The Jewish
| law Is strong upon the point that the
| dead should be buried as soon as signs OF
| putrefaction set in, and there are numer-
Gus sanitary regulations for those who
| como in contact with the dead.
The Talmud (Baba Bathra, 25) lays
| down the rule that cemeteries must be
! at least fifty cubits removed from the city,
and extramural burial has always been a
Jewish institution. The Bible is clearly
| avcrse to cremation; but so anxious were
the jewish sages to promote the "return
| of the dust to the earth as il was, that
| they commended the burial of the corpse
| in loose boards, and the body being
brought in direct contact with the earth;
| they discountenanced brick graves, and
somc rabbis in the East advocate the use
of quicklime TO promote decomposition.
| Deuteronomy xii. ii enacts, "Thou
shalt not wear garment of divers sorts,
az of wooden and linen together" Here
we have the wearing OF pure woolen stuff
| recommended by the Law OF Moses 5000
| years before Jaeger urges It's adoption.
| 1t Is no part OF my task to discuss the
moral qualities of the jew; but his tenn
perance is an admitted fact. ! doubt
| whether a strictly observant Jew has ever
been convicted of drunkenness. Some
people, however, labor under the i'm
preston that, while the Jew is temperate
in the use OF Intoxicating drinks, he is an
inordinately great eater. I can find no
| ground for such an assertion. The Jew
is fond of the good things OF this life, for
his is joyous religion, which does not
command undue ascetic practices.-Mar-
Gus N. Adler, in the Asiatic Quarterly
| Review.