Stephen von Gaden, who with Samuel Collins was
physician-in-ordinary to Czar Aleksey Mikhailovich, was instrumental in
removing many disabilities from the Jews of Moscow and in the interior
of Russia. Moses Coen, in consequence of the Cossack uprising, escaped
to Moldavia, and was made court physician by the hospodar Vassile Lupu.
But for Coen, Lupu would have been dethroned by those who conspired
against him. To his loyalty may probably be attributed the kind
treatment Moldavian Jews later enjoyed at the hands of the prince. Coen
also exposed the secret alliance between Russia and Sweden against
Turkey, and his advice was sought by the doge of Venice.[36]
The personage who typifies best the enlightened Slavonic Jew of the
pre-Haskalah period is Tobias Cohn (1652-1729). He was the son and
grandson of physicians, who practiced at Kamenetz-Podolsk and Byelsk,
and after 1648 went to Metz. After their father's death, he and his
older brother returned to Poland, whence Tobias, in turn, emigrated
first to Italy and then to Turkey. In Adrianople he was
physician-in-ordinary to five successive sultans. In the history of
medicine he is remembered as the discoverer of the _plica polonica_, and
as the publisher of a Materia Medica in three languages.
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