254 THEOPHILUS G. PINCHES^ ESQ., LL.D., M.R.A.S., ON 



or legal practice, that " Every dog had his first bite free." You 

 could not punish the owner of an animal who did not know that the 

 animal was of a ferocious nature, and of course to destroy that 

 animal seems to me to be a little hard on the possessor, especially 

 when the animal was of value, like an ox, or some creature on his 

 farm. As for those women who were burned alive for going into 

 a wine-house, the enactment applied to devotees of the gods and 

 those living in a cloister (for such it would seem to be), and applies 

 to women who had performed a rite of purification or a religious 

 ceremony carried out with that object. Though the punishment 

 was dreadfully severe, yet perhaps it was hardly worse than the 

 doings of the Middle Ages, when, for simply thinking otherwise 

 than as his judges thought, a man was burned at the stake. It is 

 true, as Mr. Eouse said, the enactments were uncharitable, and I 

 believe there are none of the nature of those charitable ones of the 

 Mosaic Code. I do not know that there is anything charitable by 

 enactment in our English Code. I do not know with what eye 

 that would be looked upon by a judge. 



The Secretary, — There is the gleaning of corn. 



Dr. Pinches. — That is a custom, but not legalized I think. 



It is needless to say that I listened with much pleasure to the 

 remarks of my friend Mr. Stephan. There was a conflict between 

 Hammurabi and the Elamites for many years, and it is very likely 

 that at that time Hammurabi obtained possession of portions of the 

 country and set up his monument there. That is a point, however, 

 into which I will look and will add a note to my paper if necessary. 

 He says eye diseases are not prevalent, except inflammation, and 

 that was cured by means of herbs. That is a very important point. 

 The diseases of the eye mentioned in the Code of Hammurabi were 

 cured by means of the lancet. There is hardly any doubt, I think, 

 of that. The word is composed of two characters, the Semitic pro- 

 nunciation I do not know, but the first is the character gir, which 

 means a short sword or dagger, and could only stand for la7icef, or 

 some instrument used for surgical purposes. Cataract may not 

 have been so serious in ancient times, and it may be that it was 

 more frequent in Babylonia than in Assyria. That is a point on 

 which I know nothing, but upon which probably Mr. Stephan 

 knows something — I mean whether cataract is more prevalent in 

 Babylonia than in his native place. 



