FOREWORD 



An especial and absorbing interest is attached to a 

 description of medicine as practised in a country into 

 which modem medicine has not yet penetrated, for one 

 is earned back to the times far distant when in one's 

 own comitry the practitioners of medicine were striving 

 to see Hght amidst the medley of faith cures, charms, 

 and herbal and animal remedies which had formed the 

 Materia Medica of then- forefathers. 



Dr. John D. Gimlette has given a fascinating scientific 

 account of medicine as practised by the " medicine- 

 man " m the Federated Malay States, and no one is so 

 well quahfied to undertake such a task, for since 1896 

 he has devoted his life to the study and advancement of 

 medicine in this remote part of the world. 



Dr. Gimlette has done more than this, because, as is 

 weO known, he has gained the confidence and affec- 

 tionate regard of the natives of the Malay Peninsula 

 for his self-sacrificing and devoted help to them in 

 times of illness and distress. The readers of this work 

 should know that the Author in the course of his 

 practice in Malaya nearly lost his life and permanently 

 impaired his health from an infection received while 

 performing a dif&cult surgical operation to save the 

 life of a native of the country. 



The work wliich, during a period of long and painful 

 illness, Dr. Gimlette has bo bravely completed forms 

 a very valuable addition to our knowledge of Medicine 

 • and Toxicology. 



The Government of the Federated Malay States is 

 to be congi-atulated on its wise pohcy in giving support 

 to the publication of this wort, which is a piece of 

 research leading the way to discoveries of importance 

 in modem medicine. 



Mr. A. W. Churchill is well known as a publisher of 

 standard medicine and scientific works, and in this 



