VOL. LXXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL THANSACTIONS. 553 



They think pains of the lower extremity are best removed by bleeding in the 

 ancle. They have a great prejudice against bleeding in cold weather; nor is any 

 urgency or violent symptom thought at that time a sufficient reason for doing it. 

 They have their lucky and unlucky days for operating or taking any medicine; 

 but I have known them get the better of this prejudice, and be prevailed on. 

 Cupping is much practised by them ; a horn, about the size of a cupping glass, 

 is applied to the part, and by a small aperture at the other end they extract the 

 air with their mouth. The part is afterwards scarified with a lancet. This is 

 often done on the back ; and in pain and swelling of the knee it is held as a sove- 

 reign remedy. I have often admired their dexterity in operating with bad instru- 

 ments. Mr. Hamilton gave them some lancets, and they have since endeavoured, 

 with some success, to make them of that form. They were very thankful for 

 the few I could spare them. In fevers they use the kuthullega nut, well known 

 in Bengal as an efficacious medicine. They endeavour to cure the dropsy by ex- 

 ternal applications, and giving a compounded medicine made up of above 30 dif- 

 ferent ingredients: they seldom or never succeed in effecting a cure of this disease. 

 I explained to the Rajah the operation of tapping, and showed him the instru- 

 ment with which it was done. He very earnestly expressed a desire that I should 

 perform the operation, and wished much for a proper subject; such a one did 

 not occur while I remained, and perhaps it was as well both for the Rajah's 

 patients and my own credit ; for after having seen it once done, he would not 

 have hesitated about a repetition of the operation. Gravelish complaints and 

 the stone in the bladder are probably diseases unknown here. 



The small-pox, when it appears among them, is a disease that strikes them 

 with too much terror and consternation to admit of their treating it properly. 

 Their attention is not employed in saving the lives of the infected, but in pre- 

 serving themselves from the disease. All communication with the infected is 

 strictly forbidden, even at the risk of their being starved, and the house or 

 village is afterwards erased. A promiscuous and free intercourse with their neigh- 

 bours not being allowed, the disease is very seldom to be met with, and its pro- 

 gress always checked by the vigilance and terror of the natives. Few in the 

 country have had the disease. Inoculation, if ever introduced, must be very general 

 to prevent the devastation that would be made by the infection in the natural 

 way; and where there could not be any choice in the subject fit to receive the 

 disease, many must fall a sacrifice to it. The present Rajah of Thibet was 

 inoculated, with some of his followers, when in China with the late Tishoo • 

 Lama. The hot bath is used in many disorders, particularly in complaints of 

 the bowels and cutaneous eruptions. The hot wells of Thibet are resorted to 

 by thousands. In Boutan they substitute water warmed by hot stones thrown 

 into it. In Thibet the natives are more subject to sore eyes and blindness than 



VOL. XVI, 4 B 



