The Babylonian records of medicine like those of astronomy reveal the prevalence of many superstitious beliefs. The spirits of evil bring maladies upon us; the gods heal the diseases that afflict us. The Babylonian books of medicine contained strange interminglings of prescription and incantation. The priests studied the livers of sacrificial animals in order to divine the thoughts of the gods--a practice which stimulated the study of anatomy. The maintenance of state menageries no doubt had a similar influence on the study of the natural history of animals. The Babylonians were a nation of agriculturists and merchants. Sargon of Akkad, who founded the first Semitic empire in Asia (3800 B.C.), was brought up by an irrigator, and was himself a gardener. Belshazzar, the son of the last Babylonian king, dealt in wool on a considerable scale. Excavation in the land watered by the Tigris and Euphrates tells the tale of the money-lenders, importers, dyers, fullers, tanners, saddlers, smiths, carpenters, shoemakers, stonecutters, ivory-cutters, brickmakers, porcelain-makers, potters, vintners, sailors, butchers, engineers, architects, painters, sculptors, musicians, dealers in rugs, clothing and fabrics, who contributed to the culture of this great historic people. It is not surprising that science should find its matrix in so rich a civilization. The lever and the pulley, lathes, picks, saws, hammers, bronze operating-lances, sundials, water-clocks, the gnomon (a vertical pillar for determining the sun's altitude) were in use. Gem-cutting was highly developed as early as 3800 B.C. The Babylonians made use of copper hardened with antimony and tin, lead, incised shells, glass, alabaster, lapis-lazuli, silver, and gold. Iron was not employed before the period of contact with Egyptian civilization. Their buildings were furnished with systems of drains and flushes that seem to us altogether modern. Our museums are enriched by specimens of their handicraft--realistic statuary in dolerite of 2700 B.C.; rock crystal worked to the form of a plano-convex lens, 3800 B.C.; a beautiful silver vase of the period 3950 B.C.; and the head of a goat in copper about 4000 B.C. Excavation has not disclosed nor scholarship interpreted the full record of this ancient people in the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates, not far from the Gulf of Persia, superior in religious inspiration, not inferior in practical achievements to the Egyptians. Both these great nations of antiquity, however, failed to carry the sciences that arose in connection with their arts to a high degree of generalization. That was reserved for another people of ancient times, namely, the Greeks. REFERENCES F. H. Garrison, _An Introduction to the History of Medicine_. H. V. Hilprecht, _Excavations in Assyria and Babylonia_. Max Neuburger, _History of Medicine_. A. H. Sayce, _Babylonians and Assyrians_. CHAPTER II THE INFLUENCE OF ABSTRACT THOUGHT--GREECE: ARISTOTLE