CHAPTER II.
THE HEBREWS.
In the Hebrew literature, as principally represented by the Bible and by the Talmud, there does not exist any book on medicine. Notwithstanding the vicinity and the close relations of the Hebrews with Egypt, medical science never reached the degree of development among this people that it did in the land of the Pharaohs.
In the Bible we do not find the least trace of dental medicine or dental surgery. Indeed, although the books of Moses contain a great number of exceedingly wise hygienic precepts, there are not any that refer directly to the teeth or to the mouth. We may therefore conclude, with a certain degree of probability, that the Hebrews had in general good teeth and that dental affections were very rare among them.
The word tooth or teeth occurs in the Bible more than fifty times,[23] but very few of the passages in which it is to be met with present any interest so far as our subject is concerned.
That the Hebrews attached great importance to the integrity of the dental apparatus is plainly seen from the following verses of the book of Exodus (xxi: 23 to 27):
23. ... thou shalt give life for life,
24. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
25. Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
26. And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.