of the sums at which our ancestors valued the various parts of their
earthly tenements. He says "Homer is celebrated for discriminating the
wounds of his heroes with anatomical precision. The Saxon legislators
were not less anxious to distinguish between the different wounds to
which the body is liable, and which from their laws, we infer that they
frequently suffered. In their most ancient laws these were the
punishments:

"The loss of an eye or of a leg, appears to have been considered as the
most aggravated injury that could arise from an assault, and was
therefore punished by the highest fine, or fifty shillings.

"To be made lame, was the next most considerable offence, and the
compensation for it was thirty shillings.

"For a wound which caused deafness, twenty-five shillings.

"To lame the shoulder, divide the chine bone, cut off the thumb, pierce
the diaphragm, or to tear off the hair and fracture the skull, was each
punished by a fine of twenty shillings.

"For cutting off the little finger, eleven shillings.

"For cutting off the great toe, or for tearing off the hair entirely,
ten shillings.

"For piercing the nose, nine shillings.

"For cutting off the fore finger, eight shillings.