Now the _learned_ of that day were seekers after wisdom wherever it was to be found; and moreover, as the fame of Solomon was co-extensive with the then existing world, so acute an observer as the _founder_ of the Grecian law could not fail to use the materials which the wide spread knowledge of the Jewish kings sayings and doings had placed within his reach. Every Jew was required to read the law, or hear it read, once a year—each individual therefore became a living depository of its truths, and, consequently, a somewhat competent teacher of those who might desire to be instructed in such matters. _Moses_ then comes before us as the first _writer_, and the first _lawgiver_; and we shall now proceed to show that to these titles he added the still greater distinction of being the first _physician_, and promulgator of sanitary precautions. At present, however, I will not further intrude upon your patience, but leaving his claims where I have placed them, pass on to the consideration of the character of the laws themselves;—and here we arrive at a body of enactments so excellent, so well adapted, not only to the requirements of a nomadic people wandering in a wild country, but to that _same_ people when they subsequently became dwellers in cities, and suffered all the encumbrances of a more advanced civilization. _Moses_ made laws for _all_ times and for _all_ communities, _general_ as well as _particular_, reaching the _nation_ through every individual member thereof; his rules for the preservation of health embraced the consideration of personal cleanliness enforced as a _religious_ obligation in order that he might thereby enlist the unvarying co-operation of the priesthood. In a climate incentive to animal enjoyments he placed strict barriers for the preservation of _chastity_, and decreed that matters relating to sexual intercourse should be under the surveillance of the priest; directions were also given to the _menstruous_ woman, and for her conduct during _pregnancy_ and in _childbed_. The ordinance of circumcision was devised not alone for ablutionary purposes, but for _other well understood_ objects conducive to purity. Further, it was directed how the man should order himself in affections of the virile organs; and more emphatically, what he was bound to observe when the terrible _leprosy_ afflicted him. In such a calamity he was compelled to withdraw from his house, to be separated from society, and present himself to the priest at various periods during the progress of the disease; he was also to remain in a cheerless exclusion, where, if by chance any unwary passenger came in sight, the sufferer was commanded to cry aloud, _unclean! unclean!_ When convalescence and health returned, the _priest_ pronounced him cured of his leprosy, and he was then permitted to return to his home; but if the leprosy was supposed to cling to the _habitation_, _that_, too, was subjected to isolation, and in some instances to total destruction.