Long into the Middle Ages, the same unholy alliance
with astrology and divination caused mathematics to be regarded with
suspicion, and even Abelard calls it a nefarious study.
The third important feature in Babylonian medicine is the evidence
afforded by the famous Hammurabi Code (circa 2000 B.C.)--a body of laws,
civil and religious, many of which relate to the medical profession.
This extraordinary document is a black diorite block 8 feet high, once
containing 21 columns on the obverse, 16 and 28 columns on the reverse,
with 2540 lines of writing of which now 1114 remain, and surmounted by
the figure of the king receiving the law from the Sun-god. Copies of
this were set up in Babylon "that anyone oppressed or injured, who had
a tale of woe to tell, might come and stand before his image, that of a
king of righteousness, and there read the priceless orders of the King,
and from the written monument solve his problem" (Jastrow). From the
enactments of the code we gather that the medical profession must have
been in a highly organized state, for not only was practice regulated
in detail, but a scale of fees was laid down, and penalties exacted
for malpraxis. Operations were performed, and the veterinary art was
recognized.
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