The institution of medicine and jurisprudence, necessarily arose as the consequence of the physical and moral infirmities of our nature, and must, therefore, have been nearly coeval with the origin of society. In the earlier periods, however, of the world, the connection between these sciences could only have been slight, and scarcely, perhaps, perceptible; although we are strongly inclined to believe that _Medical Jurisprudence_ has an origin far more ancient, and an influence far more extensive, than modern writers have been willing to concede; an opinion which we are prepared to support by the authorities of profane as well as sacred writers, and by the history of civilized as well as barbarous communities. It must be admitted, that no inconsiderable a part of the institutions of the great law-giver of Israel, was a wise system of medical police, well adapted for the preservation of the health, and the amelioration of those evils to which the inhabitants of a tropical climate must have been exposed; and we read, that Moses was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians. In Leviticus,[2] commands are given to the priests to visit the houses infected with the plague of leprosy, or with any contagious disease; to examine the inhabitants; to establish quarantine; to scrape and white-wash the houses; to shut them up, and, in bad cases, to pull them down. If we descend into later times, we shall discover the same policy of associating the institutions of medical police with religious ceremonials; by which the performance of duties, essential to the preservation of the health, was more effectually enforced. The author has observed, in the historical introduction of his “_Pharmacologia_,” that bathing, which at one period of the world was essentially necessary to prevent the diffusion of leprosy, and other infectious diseases, was wisely converted into an act of religion, and the priests persuaded the people that they could only obtain absolution by washing away their sins by frequent ablution;[3] but, since the use of linen shirts has become general, and every one has provided for the cleanliness of his own person, the frequent bath ceases to be so essential; and, therefore, no evil has arisen from the change of religious belief respecting its connection with the welfare and purity of the soul. Among the religious impurities, and rules of purification of the Hindus, we shall be able to discern the same principle, although distorted by superstition.[4] So, again, it is easy to perceive, that the dangers consequent upon vinous inebriation in a hot climate, suggested the Mahometan prohibition of wine. The religious ceremonial observed by the ancients, whenever they proposed to build a town, or to pitch a camp, was evidently an act of legislation, founded on a just principle of physiology; they offered a sacrifice to the gods, when the Soothsayer declared, _from the appearance of the entrails_, whether they were propitious or not to the design.