Dr. Aixslie's Observations on the Lepra Arabum. 299 



leprosy, and Carin kustam, or black leprosy ; the first corresponding with 

 the Lepra Grcecorum, the last with the Lepra Arabum. These, Agastya, in 

 his celebrated work entitled Vaidj/a Acerum, and also in his PemU, informs 

 us, descend from father to son, and may, he adds, be hastened by the 

 following causes : — 



1. By drinking milk* after eating glutinous fish to excess. 



2. By eating food which is of a windy nature. 



3. By eating (when urged to it by great hunger) victuals of a disagreeable 

 taste or odour. 



4. By worms in the body. 



5. By eating too m.uch yellow (seed of the sesamum orientale). 



6. By checking vomiting, so retaining in the body what ought to have 

 been ejected. 



7. By habitual costiveness, by which means morbid humours are pent up. 



8. By the union of a morbid, gastric (hypochondriacal) humour and 

 vitiated bile. 



9. By a viscid acrid humour in the blood (serum). 



Certain varieties of kustam (leprosy), he is of opinion, are occasioned by 

 the bites of different noxious animals of the beetle kind. 



Others again, the same author tells us, are brought on by the bites of 

 snakes and venomous lizards. 



There are a great many medicines in use amongst the Hindu practitioners, 

 which are supposed to possess virtues in leprous affections. They have for 

 ages past considered the white oxide of arsenic as a powerful remedy in the 

 Kusht'ha (Sans, j, and as such it may be found noticed by Athar Ali Khan, 

 of Delhi, in the Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. page 153. I have had occasion 

 to prescribe this medicine in several cases, but I am sorry to say not with 

 any marked good effect; and I perceive that Dr. Batemant had no better 

 success in administering the same remedy for the malady in question. 



The root of the plant called by the Tamools Eraporel (mimosa scandens), 

 is ordered for this leprosy in the form of decoction, to the quantity of half 

 an ounce, twice daily. An extract prepared from the leaves and tender 



* I perceive this cause of the disorder is noticed by Sir William Jones See his works, 



vol. i. page 556. 



t See Bateraans Practical Synopsis of Diseases of the Skin, page 311, note. 



Vol. I. 2 R 



