Signs and portents: monstrous births from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment

Hellenistic medicine". The contributors have sought in their different ways to assert a place for the medicine of ancient Israel among her neighbours, and by stating what is known of a little studied subject, to provide a basis for further research and investigation. in his study of pharmacology and dietetics in the Bible and Talmud, Fred Rosner gives a general overview of the subject and then deals in some detail with the balm of Gilead before discussing possible identities for the Hebrew term used to describe mandrakes and the disorders they were alleged to cure. He discusses various foods and describes how the therapeutic efficacy of chicken soup advocated by Maimonides to alleviate catarrh is still advocated by Jewish mothers today. A trio of essays devoted to the relationship of Jewish medicine to Egyptian and Mesopotamian medicine follows. Walter Jacob traces ancient Israel's medical practice through her neighbours and disputes the assumption of a continuity from Biblical medicine to that of the Rabbinic period. To support his treatise, he lists Biblical plants with their provenance where known, and the symptoms they were used to cure in both Assyrian and Egyptian texts. Second, Marvin Powell discusses the difficulty in identifying both drugs and pharmaceuticals in ancient Mesopotamia where there was no clear distinction between medicine and magic. Various methods of medication are described but it is clear that the study of Mesopotamian pharmacopaeia is yet in its infancy. Third, Renate Germer, in discussing ancient Egyptian pharmaceutical plants and the Eastern Mediterranean, echoes Walter Jacob's argument that information about medicine in ancient Israel must be sought from her neighbours. Egypt, with its medical papyri and ostraca, provides a fruitful field of study, throwing light on medicinal plants of the Bible since many were, in fact, imported from the Holy Land. An essay by Irene Jacob on Racinus communis, the castor oil plant, describes its various uses from antiquity to the modern age. This is followed by Dr Kottek's interesting contribution on medical drugs in the work of Flavius Josephus. The products of Jericho and Canaan, the importance of climate, the ingredients of ointments, and the plants in the mitre of the High Priest display Josephus' interest in materia medica. Finally, Stephen Newmyer shows the individual nature of Hebrew medicine in its concern for the poor, the ageing and the weaker members of society as reflected in the Sefer Refuot of Asaph, which at the same time draws on Greek medical writings, especially those of Dioscorides. It is hoped that these essays will stimulate further study of the subject, which is of great interest but in which there is still much to be done.