PHILOSOPHY AND MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE IN ANCIENT INDIA. 237 
In soliciting a favour a Hindoo proffers a present of fruit 
or sweetmeats (1 Sam. ix. 7). 
Servants sleep in the verandah or porch (2 Sam. xi. 9). 
Some of the Hindoo Sunyassees or Fakeers besmear their 
faces with ashes (1 Kings xx. 38). 
A contention as to the superiority in efficiency of certain 
sacred rivers in India is not uncommon, although the supe- 
riority is always accorded to the Holy Ganges ie Kings v. 
12). 
Numbers of poor Brahmins are fed frum the houses of 
the rich (Ezra iv. 14). 
The Hindoos for the most part were clothed in white 
raiment (Eccles. 1x. 8). 
For fuller particulars with regard to these matters, and 
various cognate subjects, reference may be made to the work 
on the Hindoos, vol. ii, by the Rev. W. Ward, dated J817, 
that author being one of the three* great pioneers of 
missionary work in India. : 
Adverting to the subject of medicine proper, we learn 
that the first of the Upa Vedas, or Ayur Veda, delivered to 
man by Brahma, Indra, Dhanwantari, and aoe other deities, 
comprises the theory of disorders and medicines, with the 
practical methods of treating diseases, as aiso the practical 
art of surgery.f Various medical works in Sanscrit, so we 
learn, contain the names and descriptions of Indian plants 
and minerals, with their uses, discovered by experience in 
curing diseases. 
It was directed that “all the tracts on medicine must be 
studied by the Vaidyas,f or those who are born physicians,” 
that is, of the class or caste that exclusively professes the 
study and practice of physic. 
In the ancient works, it is stated that the teachers of 
medicine were Rishis, or ascetic sages; that “the feet of the 
teacher is the origin of all happiness, and, like a hght in a 
dark room, he will illuminate the contracted and dark mind 
of the pupil;” that the student should be the son of a 
respectable and ancient family, who is either the son of a 
practitioner, or of one who respects the medical profession. 
Then follow a series of minute rules in regard to the duties 
of the physician and the patient towards each other. It is 
pointed out that “there are four circumstances required in 
* The other two, Carey and Marshman. 
+ Craufurd, vol. i, pp. 238, 241. 
t See Med. ‘of the Hindoos, by Wise, p. 11. 
