VI 



heating effects on the system, and their special influence on 

 the humours which are supposed to Bupport the machinery 

 of life, namely, air, bile, phlegm and blood. Theee details 

 are not so much the result of observation and experience 

 as the outcome of an erroneous system of pathology and 

 therapeutics. I have, therefore, selected for notice such por- 

 tions of the texts as relate to the practical use of the drugs 

 and their tangible effects on the system. This latitude in 

 departing from the texts, has enabled me to bring together 

 in one place, useful hints regarding the uses of particular 

 drugs from different Sanskrit treatises on therapeutics. I have 

 occasionally added remarks on their history and economic 

 uses where I thought I had Lew or additional information 

 to afford on the subject. These remarks are for the most 



part based on personal knowledge. 



In describing the preparation and useE of medicines employed 

 in different diseases I have confined myself strictly to the texts 

 of the authors whom I have quoted, and have given the original 

 Sanskrit verseB in foot-notea. I have not incorporated with 

 them the results of modern researches on indigenous drugs, or my 

 persinal experience of their use. These I have reserved for a 

 future essay. My ohject here has been to show the extent of 



knowledge attained by Hindu physicians by their own praotice 

 and observation. 



In the selection of the prescriptions for illustrating the uses 

 of medicines in individual diseases I have, as a rule, given pre- 

 ference to such reoipes as are commonly used by native physi- 

 oians. Where there are several well-known medicines of similar 

 composition and use, I have described in detail only one, and 

 given under it the names of the others with a brief allusion 

 to their composition. My main object in inoluding the names of 

 the priDcipal or generally known preparations of the Hindu 

 Materia Medioa in the text and index, is to enable the practitioner 

 of European Medicine to get an idea of their nature and com- 

 position when he comes to hear of their having been used by 

 patients who had been under native treatment before coming 

 under his care, as is very often the case. The list is by no means 

 an exhaustive one, nevertheless I have, at the risk of being tedious, 



