Illnesses of babies (1)

Text
An Aramaic comment in Yebamoth 71b probably goes back to Akkadian prototypes. The text claims that a baby is sustained in first seven days by ‘heat’ (ˀyštˀ), either his own heat or his mother’s heat (ˀyštˀ dˀymyh). This only applies to child who does not cry, but a baby who cries (when born) will survive. Similar notions can be found in the Diagnostic Handbook 40, which deals with symptoms of illness in babies, including newborn infants.

Sources (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Babylonian Talmud, Yebamoth 71b
Diagnostic Handbook (Akkadian) 40

Bibliography

Mark Geller

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