The Adoption of Children 197 



healthy. The beneJ&cial effect will follow not 

 only to the child but to the family taking it in. 

 The adoption of children goes back to great 

 antiquity. The Babylonians had laws for its 

 regulation, as mentioned in the Code of Ham- 

 marubi composed 2285 b. c. Mr. John Francis 

 Brosnan,^ of the New York bar, has written an 

 interesting monograph upon this subject from 

 which the following excerpts are taken, — ' * Look- 

 ing first to Rome, the admitted source of our 

 law on this subject, we find that from its 

 earliest days the civil law recognized adoption. 

 At first it was attended with great ceremonial 

 dignity. Later, Justinian simplified and codi- 

 fied its procedure. Originally accomplished by 

 authority of the people assembled in Comita, 

 it later became effective by imperial rescript 

 or by a proceeding before a magistrate wherein 

 appeared personally the person giving, the per- 

 son given, and the person receiving. The re- 

 sults were far reaching. Not only the person 

 adopted came under the power of the person 

 adopting him, but the power given to the adopt- 



^The Medical Times, June, 1917. 



