ANCIENT INDIA, 



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islies it ; if in too large doses they will be liable to produce 

 other diseases. Medicine should be administered according 

 to the strength and age of the patient, and nature and stage 

 of the sickness. After the physician has visited a patient, 

 should the disease be complicated, he must detail the symp- 

 toms, and call in other physicians to consult as to their nature 

 and treatment, a principle by no means unsuited even to the 

 present period. 



18. Hygiene in Curative Treatment of Disease. — Among the 

 instructions for physicians laid down in the early works 

 already quoted is that on being first called to visit a patient 

 his inquiries should be with regard to things eaten and other 

 circumstances likely to have caused the disease ; the signs of 

 longevity, in other words, the physical condition of the person ; 

 the nature of the disease ; the seasons of the year ; from 

 what country the patient came ; his temperament ; the food he 

 had been accustomed to and so on. The treatment is begun 

 by strict injunctions with regard to the diet to be taken, 

 the principle having been adopted by the ancient Hindu 

 physicians that, " if a patient does not attend to his diet a 

 hundred good medicines will not remove the disease hence 

 they were directed to be careful with regard to diet according 

 to season, and the kind of vessels used by them. In the 

 fourth century of the present era the Indian physicians are 

 said to have mistrusted powerful remedies in the treatment 

 of disease and to have placed their chief trust in diet, regimen 

 and external applications. 



II. — ARMY HYGIENE. 



1. Soldiers.-— During the Vedic and Brahmanic periods 

 there existed a distinct class of warriors altogether separate 

 from the civil population. In the latter of those periods the 

 standing army was composed of the soldier caste, that is 

 Kshatriyas, the merchants of the Vaisyas, the agriculturists 



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