Talmudic medical recipes (13)

Text
Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 69b:
Alternatively he can take (for potency) water of which a dog has drunk at night, but he must take care that it has not been exposed.

This is the second recipe given for potency, and prescribes giving the patient water from which a dog has drunk. It is unlikely, however, that such water would be prescribed for a patient, as indicated by the caveat ‘beware’ (nyzdhr), which indicates a Deckname which was no longer understood. On the contrary, water given to the patient is usually specified as pure, as indicated by a ritual instruction within an Akkadian incantation for diphteria (būšānu) affecting the nose and mouth, which calls for the patient to have pure water poured into his mouth, but water in which no unclean woman has washed her hands, or menstruating woman has laundered her clothes, or any partridge or black dog has stirred up. The water described in Gittin ‘from which a dog has drunk’ is likely to refer to the (secret) name of a drug, perhaps the infusion known in Akkadian as ‘fluid of the dog’s tongue-plant’ (mê šammi lišān kalbi); Akkadian lišān kalbi, ‘dog’s tongue’ is a common plant in Akkadian medicine. Because Akkadian recipes often instruct the physician to leave the materia medica out overnight, this may be the reason why the Talmudic recipe is referred to as gylwy, i.e. left uncovered, although the original basis for the instruction in the Talmud was forgotten.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Babylonian Talmud, Gittin 69b

Bibliography

Mark Geller

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