Jewish medicine and the University of Padua: Contribution of the Padua graduate Toviah Cohen to nephrology

During the period of the 11th to 17th century, the access of Jews to Europe an universities was restricted and even those who were fortunate enough to be admitted to a university were not awarded a deg ree at the end of their studies, An exception to this situation was the University of Padua that al lowed Jewish students to study and awarded them degrees; indeed 229 physici ans graduated from this university between 1409 and 1721. Among these physi cians there were many luminaries such as Joseph Del Medigo, Salmon Congelia no and Toviah Cohen, The latter made many contributions to the field of nep hrology. In this treatise Maaseh Toviah he discussed uroscopy, kidney funct ion, body fluid homeostasis and obstructive uropathy.