The Jewish child : its history, folklore, biology, & sociology / by W.M. Feldman ; with an introduction by Sir James Crichton-Browne.

  • Feldman, W. M. (William Moses), 1879-1939.
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The Jewish child : its history, folklore, biology, & sociology / by W.M. Feldman ; with an introduction by Sir James Crichton-Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    106 The Jewish Child [chap. It is also said that God made the matriarchs sterile in order that they might preserve their beautiful figures and retain their husbands' aiïection.^ 5. That pregnancy increases the weight of a woman was well known. The Talmudic legislators laid down the law that a beast of burden that was hired to carry a man must not be used for carrying a woman. If, how¬ ever, it was hired to carry a woman, it might not only be used to carry a man, but it might be utilized for the purpose of carrying even a pregnant woman. The owner cannot claim any extra pay for the extra weight of the foetus because mother and foetus are one body.^ Diagnosis of Pregnancy. Pregnancy could not be diagnosed with certainty before three months, and hence a divorcée or a widow was not allowed to remarry before the expiration of three months from the date of her divorce or her hus¬ band's death, in order that one might be able to establish the paternity of the next child.^ After the third month pregnancy could be diagnosed with such certainty that Tamar was actually condemned to be burned on the strength of such diagnosis.^ An interesting diagnostic test was the woman's walk method, which, as Rashi explains, was carried out as follows: The woman was allowed to walk on soft clay, and from the depth of the footprints her condition was ascertained, those of a woman with child being deeper on account of the weight of the foetus.^ Rami ^ Cant. R. ii. 14 and Yebamoth 34&. ^ Baba Metzia 79Ò. ^ Yebamoth 42a. ^ Gen. xxxviii. 24, ® Yebamoth 42a; see Rashi, m loco.