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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



a son's share and was permitted to re- 

 tain her home, but she could marry again. 

 A widow with young children could only 

 marry with the consent of the judge. An 

 inventory of the former husband's prop- 

 erty was made and it was intrusted to the 

 couple for the deceased's children. 



The code provided that if a man di- 

 vorced a woman she received her mar- 

 riage portion. In case there was no 

 dowry, she received one miria of silver 

 if the man belonged to the gentry, but 

 only one-third of a mina if he was a 

 commoner. 



For infidelity the woman could divorce 

 her husband and take with her the mar- 

 riage portion. In case of a woman's in- 

 fidelity, the husband could degrade her 

 as a slave ; he could even have her 

 drowned. In case of disease, the man 

 could take a second wife, but was com- 

 pelled to maintain his invalid wife in his 

 home. If she preferred to return to her 

 father's house, she could take with her 

 the marriage portion. 



MEN HAD TO SHOW GOOD CAUSE BEFORE 

 THEY COUED DISINHERIT A CHILD 



The father had no right over the life 

 and death of his child, but he could treat 

 it as a chattel. If he pledged a child for 

 a debt, it became free in four years. For 

 disobedience the father could cut off his 

 hands. If a father desired to favor a 

 son, he could only do so during life, and 

 then by contract, for after his death the 

 laws of inheritance fixed the child's share. 



Charges of wrong-doing before a judge 

 were required before a son could be cut 

 off from sonship. It was only after a 

 second offense and for a serious misde- 

 meanor that a child could be so disin- 

 herited. 



The code contains a number of laws 

 referring to the adoption of children ; 

 and, from the large number of contracts 

 discovered, it seems that adoption was 

 extensively practised, especially by aged 

 people, that they might be cared for. 

 There are also a large number of laws in 

 the code that refer to slavery and many 

 documents dealing with the purchase of 

 them. 



In this connection reference might be 

 made to the code's legislation for sur- 



gery and the practice of medicine, and 

 also the many medical texts that have 

 been found, most of which have come 

 from the Library of Ashurbanipal. Not 

 a few of the medical formulae refer to 

 headache. The theory of disease being 

 largely that of demoniac possession, 

 whenever headache attended a sickness 

 the seat of the demon was considered to 

 be in the head. 



UNIFORMITY IN MEDICAE PRACTICE 



This resulted in great uniformity in 

 treatment. Salves or liniments, hot and 

 cold, were used in rubbing the head. 

 Fumes of drugs were allowed to play 

 about the head in the hope that the demon 

 would be driven out by the pleasant or 

 unpleasant odors. Some of the drugs 

 acting as counter-irritants, or soothing 

 the nerves, doubtless many of the con- 

 coctions were found to be helpful by the 

 physician, and were adopted as remedies 

 by other peoples. 



It has recently been shown that the 

 terms for such substances as cossia, chic- 

 ory, ammonia, cummin, and cynoglosson, 

 occurring in medical treatises of the 

 Greeks, are to be traced to the Baby- 

 lonians. 



The Code of Hammurabi fixed the 

 charges of physicians and surgeons. If 

 a physician cured a broken limb or healed 

 a diseased bowel, his fee from the gentry 

 was fixed at five shekels ; from the com- 

 moner, three ; and from the slave, two. 

 The surgeon for an operation upon the 

 upper class received ten shekels ; the 

 lower, five, and a slave, two. 



HARD ON THE DOCTOR 



In order to discourage the surgeon 

 from making rash operations, severe pen- 

 alties were fixed in case of unsuccessful 

 one. If the patient died, the surgeon's 

 hands were cut off. In the case of a 

 slave, he had to replace him with one of 

 equal value. If the slave's eye was lost, 

 he had to pay half the value of the slave. 



If the veterinary surgeon were success- 

 ful, he received one-sixth of a shekel ; but 

 if the animal died, he had to pay one- 

 sixth of its value. 



There were a large number of literary 

 inscriptions found in the library of Ash- 



