23- SURG.-GEN. C. A. GORDON, M.D., €.B., ETC., ON 
hereditary officers, among whom was the barber-surgeon and 
the health officer*—a system which is described as sub- 
versive of all sense of nationality and of public spirit, but 
as having rendered the country proof against revolution 
within itself. As facilitating local sovernment in its various 
branches, it presents many obvious advantages. 
Aecordine to the medical Shastras, it is the duty of the 
physician to instruct persons not only in the method of 
treating, but also in that of preventing, disease, for, said 
Manu: “As bodies are cleansed by water, the mind is 
purified by birth, the vital spirit by theology and devotion, 
and the understanding by knowledge.” 
Under the system of hygiology, instructions were com- 
prised under two separate sections, the first of which 
included relative duties, the second such as were personal. 
The rules laid down under the former of these refer to 
climate and season, the characteristics of persons according 
to the region in which they were born and had lived; the 
clothing, food, and general mode of life appropriate to dry 
climates and to hot, ‘and to each of the four seasons, namely, 
the cold, the spring, the hot, and the rainy. The diseases 
incidental to each were also enumerated. 
Under the heading of personal duties, Me 8 given 
refer to rising from bed in the morning; cleansing the 
mouth ; anointing the body; exercise; ” lini obans and 
rubbing the body, otherwise massage, of which we hear so 
much as if it were a recent development of modern science ; 
bathing; clothing; food; and sleeping. Of such instruc- 
tions, a few examples ane here suffice. 
Exercise increases strength, prevents and cures diseases 
by equalising the humours; it prevents laziness and fatness ; 
and strengthens the firmness of the body. It removes orief, 
increases the internal fire, and renders the body lighter, more 
vigorous, and ready to work. Walking is the form of 
exercise considered best by the Indians of old. It was 
directed to be always used by those who live on rich food, 
and especially in the morning and evening.f 
In ancient India the practice of anoiting was observed 
not only for purposes of consecration and inauguration,{ but 
also for guests and strangers, and for health and cleanliness. 
* Namely, an accountant, watchman, money changer, potter, carpenter 
barber, shoemaker, astrologer, &e. ; In some villages, also a dancing girl. 
and a genealogist or bard. Ibid. , p. 44. 
+ The Hindoo System of Medicine, by T. S. Wise, M.D. 
t Exod. xxiv. ; Lev. iv. 3, 5, 16; vi. 20; Psalm cxxxiii. 2. 
