522 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [November, 19 10. J 



the eye. Mr. Hughes Buller says that it is used in Baluchis- 

 tan, taken in the form of a draught for gonorrhoea. 



Mummy. 



Vern. : — Mumiai, silajit, Hind. ; Silajatu, Sans. ; Khalmolt, 

 mashana churro, Baluch. ; Arkuljibbal, mumiyai, Pers. ; Osteo- 

 colla, Lat. ; Rock sweat, Eng. 



This is one of the most remarkable of all Hindu medicines. 

 There is still some obscurity surrounding its origin. It is 

 apparently not derived from the vegetable kingdom. Although 

 it exudes from rocks it cannot be claimed as a mineral product. 

 Its peculiar unctuous and nitrogenous nature and its long 

 association with Egyptian mummies locate it therefore among 

 the animal materia medica. Mummy was a medicine of great 

 repute in Europe during the Middle Ages, and was no doubt a 

 preparation made from embalmed bodies although often 

 subject to adulteration. The mumiai obtained as a secretion 

 from the mummy mountain in Persia and described by Chardin, 

 Kaempfer Ouseley, Le Brun and other old travellers appears to 

 be the same substance as the black variety of silajit obtained 

 at the present time from the Himalayas and so much appreci- 

 ated in medicine. The occurrence and composition of silajit 

 were described by the writer in a paper read before this Society 

 in 1903 {Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., Vol. LXXII, pt. II, No. 3, 

 99-104). From further samples chemically examined and fuller 

 information on its origin and distribution it must be admitted 



that while it is an interesting relic of primitive medicine it has 

 little claim to possess any valuable therapeutic properties. 



