writings of Moses, than his distinctions in the nature of animals; whether the relations subsisting between the different species and demons be considered as revealed to him by God, or discovered by his own observations. For in these distinctions, he places, in the class of unclean, all those which are made use of in their divinations by the Egyptians and other nations; and ranks almost all others among those that are considered clean. Thus, the wolf, the fox, the serpent, the eagle, the hawk, and other similar ones, are, according to Moses, unclean; and commonly, both in the Law, and in the Prophets, these animals are designed to represent whatever is most wicked in the world."* Justin Martyr also says, "He (God) has likewise commanded you to abstain from certain meats, that, even whilst you eat and drink, you might have God before your eyes."+ Tertullian likewise has the following remarks, with which we shall conclude this article: "If the Law takes away the use of some sorts of meat, and pronounces creatures unclean, that were formerly held quite otherwise, let us consider that the design was to inure them to temperance, and look upon it as a restraint laid upon gluttons, who hankered after the cucumbers and melons of Egypt, whilst they were eating the food of angels. Let us consider it too as a remedy at the same time against excess and impurity, the usual attendants on gluttony. It was partly likewise, to extinguish the love of money by taking away the pretence of its being necessary for the providing of sustenance. It was, finally, to enable men to fast with less inconvenience upon religious occasions, by using them to a moderate and plain diet.”+

* Origen contra Celsum. Lib. iv. p. 124.

Justin Martyr's Dialogue with Trypho, the Jew, translated by H. Brown, vol. i. sec. 20, p. 98. Oxford, 1755, 8vo.

Tertullian adv. Marc. lib. ii. c. 18. in fine, quoted in Harris's Nat. Hist of the Bible, Dissert. iii.

The reader who wishes to pursue this subject more at large, may consult with advantage Spencer De Legibus Hebræorum: Michaelis's Commentaries on the Laws of Moses: Young's Historical Dissertation on Idolatrous Corruptions in Religion: Harris's Natural History of the Bible, Dissertation iii.; and the authors to whom they respectively refer.

DISSERTATION V.

ON

THE PROHIBITION OF BLOOD.

THE

HE Reasons for the Prohibition of eating Blood were various, and may be distinguished as Moral, Physical, and Typical.

I.-MORAL.

1. ONE very principal reason for prohibiting blood to be eaten was, beyond all doubt, to prevent idolatrous practices. For blood was regarded as the food of demons, not only by the nations immediately bordering upon the dwellings of the Israelites, but by other idolaters in different parts of the world. Maimonides has stated at large the superstitions of the Zabii, in offering blood as a sacrifice to the infernal objects of their worship.* R. Moses Bar Nachman (on Deut. xii. 23,) says, "They gathered together blood for the devils, their idol gods, and then came themselves and ate of that blood with them as being the devil's guests, and invited to eat at the table of devils, and so were joined in federal society with them; and by this kind of communion with devils, they were able to prophesy and foretel things to come."+ Similar practices obtained also among the Romans, since Horace thus satyrizes the superstitious rites of his countrymen :

* See More Nevochim, Lib. iii.

† Young on Idolatrous Corruptions in Religion, vol. i. p. 235.

Canidia with dishevell'd hair,

(Black was her robe, her feet were bare,)
With Sagana, infernal dame!

Her elder sister, hither came.

With yellings dire, they fill'd the place,
And hideous pale was either's face.

Soon with their nails they scrap'd the ground,
And fill'd a magic trench profound,
With a black lamb's thick streaming gore,
Whose members with their teeth they tore,
That they may charm the sprights to tell
Some curious anecdotes from hell.

FRANCIS'S HORACE.-Sat. 7. Book i..

The sacred books of the Hindoos exhibit traces of the same kind of worship formerly prevailing amongst them. In the Asiatic Researches, vol. v., is a translation of the "Rudhiradhyaya or Sanguinary Chapter" of the Calica Puran, by W. C. Blaquiere, Esq., from which the following

are extracts:

"Birds, tortoises, alligators, fish, nine species of wild animals, buffaloes, bulls, he-goats, ichneumons, wild boars, rhinoceroses, antelopes, guanas, rein-deer, lions, tygers, men, and blood drawn from the offerer's own body, are looked upon as proper oblations to the Goddess Chandica, the Bhairăvăs, &c.-The pleasure which the Goddess receives from an oblation of the blood of fish and tortoise, is of one month's duration, and three from that of a crocodile. By the blood of the nine species of wild animals, the Goddess is satisfied nine months, and for that space of time continues propitious to the offerer's welfare.-That of the lion, rein-deer, and the human species, produces pleasure which lasts a thousand years.-The vessel in which the blood is to be presented, is to be according to the circumstances of the offerer, of gold, silver, copper, brass, or leaves sewed together, or of earth, or of tutenague, or of any of the species of wood used in sacrifices. Let it not be presented in an iron vessel, nor in one made of the hide of

F

an animal, or the bark of a tree; nor in a pewter, tin, or leaden vessel.-Let it not be presented by pouring it on the ground, or into any of the vessels used at other times for offering food to the deity.-Human blood must always be presented in a metallic or earthen vessel; and never on any account in a vessel made of leaves, or similar substances." 2. Another reason why blood was to "be poured upon the earth as water," and not to be "eaten," appears to have been, that by this means the Israelites might be deeply and constantly impressed with the important truth, that God is the sole Author and Disposer of Life; and thereby maintaining a constant sense of dependance upon Him, and of gratitude to Him for his providential mercies. "God," says the learned Calmet, "reserved to himself the blood of all sacrifices as absolute Master of Life and Death." -Blood, being regarded as the organ of life, was therefore sacred to Him from whom life was derived: for "the blood is the life, and thou mayest not eat the life with the flesh." Deut. xii. 23, 24; Lev. xvii. 10-14.

The doctrine of the Vitality of the Blood, thus suggested by the Laws of Moses, does not appear to have been avowed by medical writers before A. D.1628, the time of the celebrated Harvey, the discoverer or reviver of the doctrine of the circulation of the blood, who, in his writings maintained the opinion, but was never much followed till Mr. Hunter, professor of Anatomy in London, defended the hypothesis with much acuteness and strength of argument, in his Treatise on the Blood, Inflammation, &c., London, 1794, 4to. The arguments of Hunter were vigorously attacked by Professor Blumenbach of Gottingen, who fancied he had gained a complete victory over the defenders of the Vitality of the Blood. But his translator, Dr.

Elliotson, in the Notes he has added to the Professor's Institutions of Physiology, (Sect. vi. pp. 43, 44, London, 1817, 2nd edition, 8vo.,) thus sums up what he regards as the true state of the question :— "The great asserter of