Neuburger makes the remark that the ancient Persians are entitled to the gratitude of later generations for the valuable service which they rendered the science of medicine, inasmuch as, during the dynasty of the Sassanide princes (fifth century A. D.) and at a time when European culture was hastening to its destruction, they gave shelter both to classical culture in general and to the medical knowledge of the Greeks, and then afterward handed it over to the conquering Arabs, who passed it on to our forefathers. _The Medicine of the Old Testament._--There are no medical writings which give any information concerning the science and art of medicine as possessed by the ancient Israelites, but the Bible contains a number of passages that refer to matters which belong in the domain of medicine, and more particularly in that of social hygiene. The mosaic laws were framed with a view to the good of the Jewish people as a whole, and were directed to such matters as the prevention and suppression of epidemic diseases, the combating venereal affections and prostitution, the care of the skin, the systematizing of work, the regulation of sexual life, the intellectual cultivation of the race, the provision of suitable clothing, dwellings and food, the use of baths, etc. Many of these laws--like those, for example, which prescribe rest on the Sabbath day, circumcision, abstinence from eating the flesh of the pig, the isolation of persons affected with leprosy, the observation of hygienic rules in camp life, etc.--testify to a remarkably high degree of the power to reason correctly; and, when considered in the light of modern science, they seem to justify the prediction made in Deuteronomy iv., 6. A similar prediction (supposed to be spoken by God from Mount Sinai) is made in Exodus xix., 6: “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” That a large part of the credit given to Moses for the wisdom displayed in these sanitary laws really belongs to the Egyptians is shown by the text of Acts vii., 22: “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.” As regards the manner in which the Israelites treated the diseases which afflicted them the Bible furnishes ample proof of the fact that they placed their chief reliance upon prayers, sacrifices, and offerings at their temples, and made comparatively small use of medicinal agents, dietetic measures, and external applications. The favorable effect of David’s harp-playing upon the melancholia of King Saul furnishes the only instance, to be found in the Bible, of the curative value of music in certain mental disorders.