SERINGAPATAM. 
445 
Bangalore to press the point any further. Bucherow having heard 
that I had been enquiring for a Nair's-knife, requested I would ac- 
cept one which, he said, Providence had placed in his hands pur- 
posely to give to me. I accepted it with thanks, telling him I was 
rejoiced to find Providence took such good care of me, for the wea- 
pon was handsome of its kind, and ornamented with silver. Nar- 
singrow said his father had written to him, to request I would hot 
leave Seringapatam, without visiting the bridge he was erecting 
over the Cauveri on the Bangalore road. I promised to stop there 
in the evening. 
Many of my friends joined me at an early dinner in the palace; 
amongst others Dr. White, of the medical staff, of whom I made some 
enquiries respecting the medical practice of the natives. He assured 
me that their ignorance was extreme ; that they used some of the 
mineral remedies, particularly calomel ; but that they administered 
it in such strong doses, as frequently to prove more destructive 
than the disease it was meant to eradicate. An usual emetic is com- 
posed by suspending a small copper coin in acid, till the solution 
has taken place sufficiently to operate ; but their temerity is some- 
times punished by death from the strength of the dose. Starvation is 
another prescription for all diseases. Purneah's daughter perished 
by it not long before my arrival. The fever was conquered, but the 
weakness was so great that the patient sunk under it. A medicine , 
is considered as increasing in value, according to the number of in- 
gredients it contains, which frequently amount to fifty, when it is 
infallible. In Canara, I am told, the toddy drawers are the physi- 
cians : they cannot be worse than their brethren of Mysore. Dr. 
White assured me that he had seen the volatile alkali used in above 
