THE WANDERING JEW AT THE SALPETRIERE. 529 



Gottlieb M (Fig. 5), forty-two years old, a native of a vil- 

 lage near Wilna, like Moses, began to travel very early, and has 

 been a frequent visitor to the hospitals. Never finding any remedy 

 for his ills, he passed 

 from Russia into Ger- 

 many, then into Aus- 

 tria, England, and 

 France. 



The history of oth- 

 er sufferers, in all es- 

 sential features, is 

 very like these. 



If we compare the 

 wandering neuro- 

 paths with one an- 

 other and with the 

 Wandering Jew of 

 the legend, we find a 

 remarkable uniform- 

 ity among them. In 

 the first place, we are 

 struck with the com- 

 mon origin of the suf- 

 ferers, who all seem 

 to have come from the 

 same source, which is 

 situated on the bor- 

 ders of Germany, Po- 

 land, and Austria. 



All, while polyglots, speak German by preference. The Wander- 

 ing Jew has the same characteristics. " Wherever he went/' says 

 a legend of 1618, "he spoke the language of the country." On the 

 other hand, the persons who thus become wanderers, usually with- 

 out apparent cause, are always Jews ; they find in themselves the 

 impulse that urges them to travel; most frequently it is the 

 necessity of consulting a new doctor, of trying a new remedy. 

 On the road, they live on alms ; on the other hand, profiting by 

 the solidarity which prevails between Israelites, they find in every 

 city credit houses where they can enjoy a modest revenue that 

 makes them eternally rich, while it leaves them eternally poor ; 

 and thereby is explained in a remarkable manner that strophe in 

 the complaint which awakens wonder at first : 



"I have five sous in my purse, 

 In that is all my means, 

 And everywhere and always 

 I have enough." 



FIG. 5. GOTTLIEB M , AN ISRAELITE, NEUROPATHIC 



WANDERER. 



