56 



DR. K. ANGUS SMITH ON ANCIENT AND 



their priests were made to sing three hundred psalms as a 

 punishment for eating or drinking what a cat, dog, mouse, 

 or weasel had spoiled.* But after a time the habits of the 

 priests became spread over the people, they became general, — 

 necessary for conifort, and not ceremonial ; — another instance 

 of the manner in which a strict command becomes dissipated. 



No doubt, from a sanitary beginning, the more observing 

 classes, the priests, were accustomed to avoid swine and fish, 

 both of the sea and Nile, as well as lentils, peas, garlick, 

 leeks, and onions.f From some similar reason, they used 

 pure linen next the skin, — a custom and command in India 

 also. 



Amongst the Brahmins, too, were forbidden "garlick, onions, 

 leeks, and mushrooms, which no twice-born man must eat, and • 

 all vegetables raised in dung, red gums or resins exuding from 

 trees, and juices from wounded stems, &c.":J: 



But with them, too, it became a form ; — a Sudra might be 

 purified with water touching the extremity of his lip, whilst 

 the higher order, the Brahmin, is purified by water that 

 reaches his bosom, — a Vaisya must take it into his mouth, 

 and a Chitriya must let it descend to his throat. 



I have no intention of attempting a regular picture of the 

 progress of thought on sanitary matters, and shall only give a 

 few examples of different modes of thinking on the subject in 

 process of time. The plague in Italy gave occasion to many 

 physicians to think of the subject, and diseases which attack 

 men and the lower animals, as well as plants, took up the 

 attention of many, introducing disquisitions on cleanness of 

 food, cleansers of houses and of stables, arrangements for 

 dry beds for cattle, some made of odoriferous herbs, as 

 Bernardini Ramazzini counsels. The theories long wander- 

 ing began to be put into shape, although Lord Bacon seems 



* Sharon Turner's Anglo-Saxons. 



t Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Egyptians. 



t Institutes of Menu. 



