ABEILLE, i'ba'y' or a'bal', JONAS (1809—). A French military surgeon. He was born at St. Tropez and was educated at Montpellier. As the chief physician of the military hospitals of Paris he was one of the principal promoters of the method of treating cholera with strychnine. After 1857 he devoted himself more particularly to private practice and to scientific research. His publications include: WI/mires sur les in jections iodees (1849; honored with a gold medal by the Medical Society of Toulouse) ; Etudes cliniques sitr la paraplegic indcpendante de la myelite (1854; prize awarded by the Medi cal Academy in 1855) ; Chirurgic conservative (1874) ; Traitement des maladies ehroniques do la. matriec (second edition, 1878).
ABEL (Heb. 11('•bed, perhaps kindred to Babyl. ablu, son). According to Genesis (iv : 2), the name of the second son of Adam and Eve. In contrast to his brother Cain, who is an agriculturist, Abel is a, shepherd. At the close of the year, Cain offered up of the fruits of the field as a sacrifice to Jehovah, while Abel brought the firstlings of his flock. The latter's gift was regarded with greater favor by Jehovah, in consequence of which Cain's jealousy was aroused and he slew his brother Abel. ( See CAIN.) The story of Abel and Cain has been interpreted as expressing the superiority of the pastoral over the agricultural life. Abel, the shepherd, is a representative of the Palestinian nomad—though of the milder type—of which the patriarchs, Abraham; Isaac, and Jacob were examples; whereas Cain represents the Canaan ites, who, at the time that the Hebrews entered the country, had already advanced to the agri cultural stage. The Hebrews subsequently be
came agriculturists themselves, but, while the ideal held up in the Pentateucbal legislation is agricultural life, still the preference for the older nomadic conditions crops out from time to tune, 'and as late as the days of Jeremiah we find a party known as the Rechabites who not only eschewed agricultural life, but continued to live in huts and would not taste wine, which was the symbol par excellence of agricultural pursuits. The story of Cain and Abel is con ceived in the spirit of the Rechabites, just as there is a trace of the same spirit in the implied disapproval of vine culture in the tale of Noah's drunkenness (Genesis ix : 20-21). In rab binical theology, however, and under the totally different view that was taken of early biblical traditions, Abel became the type of the pious, devoted worshipper of Jehovah who suffered martyrdom for his devotion. This view is re flected in the interpretation put upon the story in the New Testament where (e.g., llebrews xi : 4) Abel's sacrifice is qualified as "better" than Cain's, and Abel himself becomes the "righteous" man, the possessor of true faith, in contrast to Cain the wicked (Matthew xxiii : 35; Luke xi : 51). The etymology of Abel is doubt ful. The Jewish view, which gives to the name the force of "vanity," is untenable; but, on the other band, to connect the name with the Assyr ian aplu (or ahlu), which means "son," is also open to serious objections, since there are no traces of Babylonian or Assyrian influence in the story itself.