THE LAWS OF THE BABYLONIANS 



251 



mentioned to-day), or being divorced from her husband (this was 

 quoted from the Timy.s revievr). she might be drowned at .. the 

 pleasure of her husband. On these points one can but condemn 

 such codes. There is nothing of the kind in the Mosaic Law. 

 Those ordeals do not exist. Again. Dr. Pinches showed that the 

 laws of Hammurabi shed light on the custom of taking a second 

 wife when the first wife was childless, and that a man might, if he 

 chose, divorce his wife if she bore him no child. Certainly this was not 

 laid down in the I^w of Moses. Again, on behalf of the Bible story 

 of Hagar, I would say in reply to Dr. Pinches that Abraham did 

 not drive out Hagar to perish, or with any thought that she would 

 perish, any more than when he made the attempt to sacrifice Isaac, 

 for we read in the Old Testament he 1>elieved that he would be 

 raised from the dead, and if we did not read it, God had already 

 promised that through Isaac all nations should be blessed, and 

 therefore, of course, he l>elieved Isaac would be raised from the 

 dead : and those who declaim on the nature of human sacrifice 

 utterly shut their eyes to the plain teaching of Scriptiu*e. Hagar 

 was not driven out to perish, for it had distinctly been told 

 Abraham that Ishmael would become a great nation. There is, 

 therefore, a very striking difference between the accoimt that we 

 have of Hammiu-abi, and that given in the pages of the Bible of the 

 Code of Moses. Perhaps Dr. Pinches can supply the hiatus. 



Eev. S. Stephax (who was not audible from where he spoke) was 

 understood to say, in referrmg to the treatment of diseases in the 

 East, that in most parts of Assvria the cure of certain diseases was 

 almost entirely left to women. They gained the confidence of the 

 people. They treated these diseases with compoimds of which they 

 kept the secret. In the case of diser.se of the eye they put the 

 patient on the groimd. with his head tiu-ned towards them, and held 

 the head fast while they applied their compounds, which generally 

 caused tremendous pain. He was brought once to undergo that 

 treatment, but the pain was so great that he only allowed it to be 

 applied to one eye. 



Eev. John Tuckwell. — I should like to say a few words on this 

 paper, which has so many points of interest upon which one might 

 speak for a long time. TThat has struck me, however, is that the 

 old idea that writing and civilization and legal enactments and 

 legislation for nations, of a somewhat advanced characterj are 



