8 



THE HISTORY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE 



diseases into incurable, which they refused to treat, and curable, 

 which they treated according to a copious materia medica. Among 

 the various remedies must be mentioned the fact that inoculation 

 against smallpox was practised at the beginning of the warm season. 

 Dietetics and toxicology were also well known. 



Hospitals were founded by Buddhist Princes in India and Ceylon. 

 In fact, there is an account of a hospital being founded in Anuradha- 

 pura, the ancient capital of Ceylon, as early as the fifth century B.C., 

 and later many more were established, as well as a sort of medical 

 or sanitary department, having one medical officer to every ten 

 villages, together with a definite sanitary organization, and with 

 institutions for the reception of cripples, deformed, and poor persons. 

 One of the Sinhalese Kings appears to have known and practised 

 medicine himself. 



Under the influence of war and invasion, together with the 

 introduction of new religions, caste distinctions became more rigid, 

 and the Brahmans, fearing to touch blood or diseased matter, left 

 the study of medicine to lower castes, and later, when the hospitals 

 were closed, Indian medicine sank to a very low position, and did 

 not again revive till the British Government founded its medical 

 schools and research institutions. Moreover, the invasions of India 

 by Mohammedans, and of Ceylon by Tamils, seem to have 

 thoroughly upset all these excellent medical arrangements. The 

 practitioner who works in India or Ceylon must not be surprised 

 to find that the people strongly believe in their own system of 

 medicine and medical men. At the same time, it must be remem- 

 bered that their science and art is a great degeneration from the 

 ancient Indian medicine. 



Modern medicine has now reached India and Ceylon from the 

 West, and native medical men in increasing numbers are to be 

 found trained in modern medicine and surgery. In other words, 

 in these regions there have been three medical epochs — the first, in 

 which there was great enlightenment and study; the second, in 

 which the knowledge so acquired was largely lost; and the third, 

 in which a revival of medical knowledge has come about by impor- 

 tation from the West. 



Before leaving the subject of Indian medicine, it is perhaps 

 advisable to note the visits of the Greek physicians Ktesias (about 

 400 B.C.) and Megasthenes (about 300 B.C.) to Northern India, as 

 they are of importance in proving the possibility of the exchange 

 of knowledge between India and Greece, and vice versa. 



Egyptian Medicine. — In the meanwhile, and probably quite in- 

 dependently, medicine had begun to be studied in Egypt ; for several 

 papyri have been found, one called the Ebers, or Leipzig Papyrus, 

 of the sixteenth century B.C. — about 1550 B.C. ; a second, the 

 Berlin Papyrus, of the fourteenth century B.C.; a third, also in 

 Berlin; a fourth, the Hearst Papyrus; a fifth, of little importance, 

 in the British Museum ; and a sixth, in Paris. 



It seems probable that the Ebers Papyrus represents in writing 



