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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. IX, 



the Buddhists to this day, and I have learned from reliable 

 authority that the Buddhist contractor of the Planters' 

 and Anthonisz Wards (Mahamarakkala Kurukulasuriyapata- 

 bendige Solomon Perera) has actually built these hospitals 

 simply at the cost price of the materials, in the hope of 

 obtaining merit here and Nirvana hereafter. King Asoka 

 also recognised the sanctity which attaches to human life, 

 and directed that the life of no living being was to be taken ; 

 and that wells were to be dug, trees planted, and caravan- 

 saries erected in public highways for travellers. 



The medical houses, or hospitals, of that period, were to 

 be provided with all sorts of instruments and medicines, 

 consisting of mineral and vegetable drugs, and food ; and 

 skilful physicians were appointed to administer them at the 

 expense of the State. Those physicians, or Vedardlas, who 

 had gained a knowledge of Sanskrit, committed to memory 

 stanzas, and recited them by the bedside of the patient. 

 These stanzas were from the A'yur-Veda, a religious treatise 

 on the science of life and medicine. 



The A'yur-Veda (from dyur, period of living, and ved, 

 to know, treating of the science of life and medicine) is 

 said to have been first preserved by oral tradition in the 

 form of hymns, prayers, and precepts. It is regarded as 

 the most ancient and authentic book on Oriental medicine, 

 next to our own Bible, and consists of one hundred lectures, 

 of a thousand stanzas each, called slokas. 



Fragments only of the manuscripts are now extant. It was 

 supposed to have been composed by Brahma, 900 B.C., and 

 handed down to the Buddhists by the Brahmins. It was 

 intended to teach the proper manner of preserving life, and 

 the means of preventing and curing diseases. Dr. Wise, 

 the author of the " History of Medicine among the Asiatics," 

 says that it contained a description of the structure of the 

 human body prepared from actual dissection, an account of 

 the causes and diseases to which it is subject, the enumera- 

 tion of many useful remedies, and precepts for preserving 



