47 
an Indian answer, means a cut with a sword made of 
Indian steel. Their works in copper and brass early 
attained perfection, and many of their nicer manufactures 
in gold and silver still continue to be admired for delicacy 
and beauty. This may, perhaps, be ascribed to that fineness 
of touch, which enabled them, in remote antiquity, to 
weave cottons and muslins of such unrivalled delicacy of 
texture, as to be sought for to clothe the kings and priests 
of Egypt, as well as those of the Holy Land. 
Being satisfied of the existence of these Sanscrit medical 
works, at a period antecedent to the Arabs, it would no 
doubt be interesting: to know something; more of their 
contents. But no complete work, and few passages, have 
yet been translated into any European language. Owing, 
however, to the exertions of a gentleman, with whom I am 
proud to have been associated in the same service, who 
was long President of the Medical Society of Calcutta, 
and is now Professor of Sanscrit in the University of 
Oxford, — I need hardly add the name of Horace Hayman 
Wilson, — we are able to get a glimpse of the contents of 
the works of Charak and of Susruta. (v. Calc. Orient. 
Magaz. 1823 ; and On Leprosy, as known to the Hindoos, 
Calc. Med. Trans, vol. i.) The antiquity of the Sanscrit 
language is now well known, and Oriental scholars have 
shown its " affinity with many ancient and modern languages 
of Europe and Western Asia, as the Zend, the Greek and 
Latin, the Sclavonic, and Germanic languages. 11 Of the 
estimation in which these medical works were held in other 
than the northern provinces of India, we have the proofs 
in the care and frequency with which they were trans- 
lated into the languages of those parts, as Tamul on one 
hand, and the Tibetan on the other. The former is 
described as " entirely distinct, and occupying nearly as 
conspicuous a rank among the languages of the Peninsula, 
