. If female dogs one litter bear, destruction to the city.

It is needless to continue these citations, since they but reiterate
endlessly the same story. It is interesting to recall, however, that the
observations of animate nature, which were doubtless superstitious in
their motive, had given the Babylonians some inklings of a knowledge of
classification. Thus, according to Menant,(21) some of the tablets from
Nineveh, which are written, as usual, in both the Sumerian and Assyrian
languages, and which, therefore, like practically all Assyrian books,
draw upon the knowledge of old Babylonia, give lists of animals, making
an attempt at classification. The dog, lion, and wolf are placed in one
category; the ox, sheep, and goat in another; the dog family itself is
divided into various races, as the domestic dog, the coursing dog, the
small dog, the dog of Elan, etc. Similar attempts at classification of
birds are found. Thus, birds of rapid flight, sea-birds, and marsh-birds
are differentiated. Insects are classified according to habit; those
that attack plants, animals, clothing, or wood. Vegetables seem to be
classified according to their usefulness. One tablet enumerates the uses
of wood according to its adaptability for timber-work of palaces, or
construction of vessels, the making of implements of husbandry, or even
furniture. Minerals occupy a long series in these tablets. They are
classed according to their qualities, gold and silver occupying a
division apart; precious stones forming another series. Our Babylonians,
then, must be credited with the development of a rudimentary science of
natural history.

BABYLONIAN MEDICINE

We have just seen that medical practice in the Babylonian world was
strangely under the cloud of superstition. But it should be understood
that our estimate, through lack of correct data, probably does much less
than justice to the attainments of the physician of the time. As already
noted, the existing tablets chance not to throw much light on the
subject. It is known, however, that the practitioner of medicine
occupied a position of some, authority and responsibility. The proof
of this is found in the clauses relating to the legal status of
the physician which are contained in the now famous code(22) of the
Babylonian King Khamurabi, who reigned about 2300 years before our era.
These clauses, though throwing no light on the scientific attainments
of the physician of the period, are too c