MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 307 



quite as much as those, the situation of whose houses 

 is more elevated. Nor can it be here as it has been 

 supposed to be in the mountains of Europe from the 

 effects of drinking water which has been frozen, for 

 neither ice nor snow are known; and if it were, as Marsden 

 supposes, from the fog prevalent in the mornings in 

 the valleys between the mountains, how is it that amongst 

 tribes similarly situated, it should be prevalent in some 

 and unknown to others ? 



Parturition, from the more hardy and robust frames 

 of the women, is not here attended with the danger 

 and consequent weakness peculiar to more civilized and 

 polite nations. Amongst the delicately-kept women 

 of the Malayan harems, child-birth is almost as much 

 dreaded as by the ladies in Europe, and they are 

 quite as long in recovering their strength. I have been 

 told that women among the Dyaks are rarely confined 

 to the house more than two or three days, and fre- 

 quently are seen at their ordinary employment within 

 that time : their attendants, during the period of labour, 

 are the old women of the tribe. 



In the practice of medicine and surgery, we cannot 

 look for much skill amongst so simple a people ; yet 

 they are not ignorant of a kind of phlebotomy, and 

 practice both bleeding and cupping in particular 

 cases. The former operation is performed very rudely, 

 by cutting large gashes in the limb which pains them. 

 The cupping process is curious, and, as far as I know, 

 peculiar to the people. The wounds being made with 

 u sharp knife, or a piece of bamboo, a small tube of 



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