The captivity at Babylon brought the Jews into contact with a nobler and very high civilization. In many ways there is no doubt that Jewish thought was greatly developed and enlarged by association with the peoples of Babylonia and Assyria. What precise influences the Jews became subject to in this captivity we have not the means to determine; but the fact that the Greek physician Democedes visited the court of Darius, proves that Eastern lands had in some measure fallen under the influence of Greek thought, about the time of Ezra. The Book of Ecclesiasticus is supposed to belong to the period of the Ptolemies, and in that work we find practitioners of medicine held in high esteem. “Honour a physician with the honour due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him; for the Lord hath created him.... The skill of the physician shall lift up his head; and in the sight of great men he shall be in admiration. The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them.... Then give place to the physician, for the Lord hath created him; let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him.”[190] A very interesting but mysterious sect of the Jews was the ESSENES (B.C. 150). Our knowledge of this ancient community is chiefly derived from Josephus,[191] who says that they studied the ancient writers principally with regard to those things useful to the body and the soul, that they thus acquired knowledge of remedies for diseases, and learned the virtues of plants, stones, and metals. Another name for the Essenes was the Therapeutists, or the Healers.[192] They lived somewhat after the fashion of monks, and had a novitiate of three years. Some of their principles and rules suggest a connection with Pythagorism and Zoroastrianism. De Quincey finds in Essenism a saintly scheme of Ethics, a “Christianity before Christ, and consequently without Christ.”[193] Recent scholarship, says Professor Masson, will not accept his conclusions concerning this remarkable secret society.[194] The surgery of the Talmud includes a knowledge of dislocations of the thigh, contusions of the head, perforation of the lungs and other organs, injuries of the spinal cord and trachea, and fractures of the ribs. Polypus of the nose was considered to be a punishment for past sins. In sciatica the patient is advised to rub the hip sixty times with meat-broth. Bleeding was performed by mechanics or barbers. The pathology of the Talmud ascribes diseases to a constitutional vice, to evil influences acting on the body from without, or to the effect of magic.