Show HARD TIMES FOR DOCTORS their fees were small in n babylon babion and failure to cure meant coture To ture babylonian surgeons four thousand years ago bad not the easy time of their modern colleagues the french archaeological commission has just discovered there a tablet containing some interesting facts about the babylonian bob bali sawyer for all operations erat ions performed with a knife pa trenta were to pay twelve silver shekels which la is about 3 76 75 of amer lean ican money A broken leg or arm must be set bet for 2 and teeth were drawn at the uniform rate of seventy leventy five cents all the same this must have bare been pretty good pay foil for the time because the tablet in question goes on to eburn mate erate the punishment meted out to sur geons who made professional mistakes these would appeal even less to the modern medical man ma than the th tow low fees fee when an operation caused the tb death of a patient the unfortunate surgeon bad both his hands bands cut off and when he did not cure his patient in reason ably quick tine time the tablet tells us that his fee was confiscated by the government it does not mention what was considered a reasonable time for healing |