12 THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



even recovered the name (Ilu-bani) of a physician 

 who lived in southern Babylonia about 2700 B.C. 

 The most interesting information, however, in refer- 

 ence to Babylonian medicine dates from the time of 

 Hammurabi, a contemporary of the patriarch Abra- 

 ham. It appears from the code drawn up in the reign 

 of that monarch that the Babylonian surgeons oper- 

 ated in case of cataract ; that they were entitled to 

 twenty silver shekels (half the sum for which Joseph 

 was sold into slavery, and equivalent to seven or 

 eight dollars) for a successful operation ; and that in 

 case the patient lost his life or his sight as the result 

 of an unsuccessful operation, the surgeon was con- 

 demned to have his hands amputated. 



The Babylonian records of medicine like those of 

 astronomy reveal the prevalence of many superstitious 

 beliefs. The spirits of evil bring maladies upon us ; 

 the gods heal the diseases that afflict us. The Baby- 

 lonian books of medicine contained strange inter- 

 minglings of prescription and incantation. The priests 

 studied the livers of sacrificial animals in order to 

 divine the thoughts of the gods a practice which 

 stimulated the study of anatomy. The maintenance 

 of state menageries no doubt had a similar influence 

 on the study of the natural history of animals. 



The Babylonians were a nation of agriculturists 

 and merchants. Sargon of Akkad, who founded the 

 first Semitic empire in Asia (3800 B.C.), was brought 

 up by an irrigator, and was himself a gardener. Bel- 

 shazzar, the son of the last Babylonian king, dealt 

 in wool on a considerable scale. Excavation in the 

 land watered by the Tigris and Euphrates tells the 

 tale of the money-lenders, importers, dyers, fullers, 



