49 



H E M A R K S 



O N 



T II 15 



, ARTS 



AND 

 SCIENCES 



* 



£m however inclined to believe that they have among themfelvts 



L 



fome traditional knowledge of treating wounds by applying cata- 

 ,plafms cf brnifed plants ; this knowledge is perhaps confiderably 

 vinferior to that of the fons of Jifculapiiis, who, in the Trojan war, 

 aflillied the w^ounded Grecian heroes with their remedies, and whofe 

 fcien<:e was confined, it feems, to a few plaifters and chirurgical 

 operations. The fears of wounds which we faw, were not all proofs 



Some were really well healed, and 



However, there were unqueftion- 



able inftances of their fkill and fuccefs in healing wounds. 



the chief of 0-Hiddea, and the friend of Mr. de Bougain: 



the fide of his forehead, an impreffion on the ikull made by a large 



4' 



1 



of an equal fuccefs in their art. 

 others had large elevated feams. 



O'-Rettee 



had 



on 



^ 



ilone^ of fuch a fize, that a m^n's hand might be laid 

 yet there were no viiible fears of fo dangerous a wound. 



and 



I 



the friendly iiles we obferved, that th 



part of the 



nation, had on each eheek-bone a fpot, which m fome only appeared 

 to be of a different colour of the ikin, in others we faw thefe round 

 fpots covered with a frefli fcurf, and a^ain in others they were quite 

 red and wounded, as if they had been caufed by fome exulcerating 

 plants, or by burning on it fome fubftance fimilar to the Moxa of 



■t 



the Japanefe, * and the natives inthnated to us that it was done oii 



account 



* All the-OrientpA phyficians 



life fome cauteries agalnft difeafes. 



The Arabs burn a 



cylmdcr of blue cotton cloth -on the part afFeaed by pain. The Indians anil Malays, ufe 



various 



/ 



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/ 



