LEGISLATIONS OF ISRAEL AND BABYLONIA. 



151 



bonds " should have no remedy if the depositary denied his 

 title (122 fif.). The legal statesmanship of such piwisions is 

 beyond question. 



Other legal tools of ancient Babylonia find analogies in 

 modern English law. For example, a father making a 

 settlement of a field or a garden on a " lady, a votary or a vowed 

 woman," could if he so desired give her an absolute testamentary 

 power over the property to the exclusion of her brothers 

 (§ 179). On the other hand he might refuse to do this. In 

 that case she only had a life interest without power of 

 alienation, and even this interest was subject to a right on the 

 part of her brothers to undertake the cultivation of the property 

 and pay her corn, oil and wool, according to the value of her 

 share. Indeed, speaking generally, it may be said that the 

 rules of succession and settlements are such as usually spring 

 up in communities in an advanced economic condition. 



In another branch of the law the machinery adopted is of a 

 less modern and permanent type. The Babylonian legislator 

 appears to have sought to prevent disputes as to the remunera- 

 tion for services rendered by fixing the amount by statute, and 

 accordingly we find the fees for the work of doctors, veterinary 

 surgeons, builders, etc. These rules are usually flanked by 

 others, pro^'iding more or less savage punisliment in the event 

 of the contractor's showing want of care or skill. Thus in the 

 case of certain unsuccessful operations, the doctor is to lose his 

 hands (§ 218) if his patient is a '" gentleman." This doctrine of 

 the legal responsibility of a physician for failure may be 

 paralleled from India. This we read in Yishnu : — 



" Also, a physician who adopts a wrong method of cure 

 in the case of a patient of high rank (such as a relative of 

 the king's) [shall pay the highest amercement] : the second 

 amercement in the case of another patient ; the lowest amerce- 

 ment in the case of an animal ;* similarly Manu says, " All 

 physicians who treat (their patients) wrongly (shall pay) a fine : 

 in the case of animals, the first (or lowest) ; in the case of 

 human beings, the middlemost (amercement)."! An Indian 

 commentator on tliis latter passage adds, " But this refers to 

 cases when death is not (the result of the wrong treatment) ; 

 for if that is the case the punishment is greater." 



It is interesting to note the gradation of ranks leading in 



* Vishnu, v, 175-1<7. 

 t ix, 284. 



L 



