52 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [anNO 1713. 



Their chemists make use of the first pot they meet with, to revive cinnabar, 

 and other preparations of mercury, which they do after a very simple manner. 

 They easily reduce all metals into a powder. They set a great value on talc 

 and brass, which consume, as they say, all viscous humours, and remove the 

 most stubborn obstructions. 



Their physicians are more cautious in using sulphur, than they are in Europe: 

 they correct it with butter ; and put broth upon it, made with long pepper, in 

 which are boiled the kernels of the Indian pine apple. Wolfs-bane corrected in 

 cow's urine, and arsenic corrected with juice of lemons, they use with success in 

 fevers. A physician is not permitted to take care of a sick person, unless he 

 can guess at his disease, and what humour is most predominant ; which they 

 easily know by feeling the pulse of the patient. Nor are they often deceived, 

 as I can witness, having myself some experience in this art. 



The principal diseases in this country are, 1. The mordechin, or cholera mor- 

 bus. The means by which they cure it, is by not suffering the patient to drink, 

 and by burning the soals of his feet. 2. The sonipat, or lethargy ; which is 

 cured by putting into the person's eyes bruised pepper mixed with vinegar. 

 3. The pilhai, or obstruction of the spleen ; for which they have no specific 

 remedy^ unless it be that of the joghis, or converted Indians : they make a 

 small incision under the spleen, and put in between the skin and flesh a long 

 needle; from whence by sucking with the end of a horn, they draw out of the 

 orifice a kind of fat matter that resembles pus or corruption. Most of the 

 physicians have a custom of putting a drop of oil on the urine of the sick per- 

 son : if it spreads abroad, they say it is a sign that the patient is very hot with- 

 in ; but on the contrary, if it keeps together entire, it is a sign that he wants 

 heat. 



The common people use very simple medicines. For the megrim, they 

 smoke, like tobacco, the dried bark of a pomegranate tree, reduced to a powder, 

 and mixed with four corns of pepper. For the common head-ach, they smell 

 to a nodule, composed of a mixture of sal ammoniac, lime, and water, tied up 

 together in a linen rag. Such dizzinesses of the head, as proceed from a cold 

 thick blood, they cure by drinking wine, in which are steeped a few grains of 

 frankincense. For deafness, occasioned by too great a quantity of cold hu- 

 mours, they drop into the ear a drop of juice of lemons. When the brain is 

 charged and oppressed with watery humours, they smell to black cummin-seed, 

 bruised and tied up in a nodule. For the tooth-ach, they put upon the tooth 

 affected a paste made of crumbs of bread, and the seed of the stramonium, 

 which stupifies the part affected, and eases the pain. In an haemorrhage, or 

 flux of blood, they make the person smell to bruised mother-worth, or worm- 



