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benevolence ; his heart must be charitable, his temper calm, 
and his constant study how to do good. Such a man is 
properly called a good physician ; and such a physician 
ought still daily to improve his mind by an attentive 
perusal of scientific books. 
" When a sick person expresses himself peevishly or 
hastily, a good physician is not thereby provoked to impa- 
tience ; he is mild, yet courageous ; and cherishes a cheerful 
hope of being able to save his patient's life : he is frank, 
communicative, impartial, and liberal ; yet ever rigid in 
exacting an adherence to whatever regimen or rules he may 
think it necessary to enjoin. 
" Should death come upon us, under the care of a person 
of this description, it can only be considered as inevitable 
fate, and not the consequence of presumptuous ignorance. 1 ' 
That the native practitioners have in some measure 
benefited by these instructions, we have the satisfaction to 
learn from a native authority in the Asiatic Researches. 
If the picture be a true one, I fear they would throw some 
of their European brethren into the shade ; as it is stated, 
" that all the tracts on medicine must indeed be studied by 
the Vydyas (doctors), and they have often more learning, 
and far less pride than any of the Brahmins. They are 
usually poets, grammarians, rhetoricians, and moralists ; 
and may, in fact, be esteemed the most virtuous and amiable 
of the Hindoos." 
T regret that I have no such favourable passages to 
adduce in favour of the study of Materia Medica : but as 
the physician is unable to effect much good without the 
means it affords him ; we have what is equally valuable, a 
long list of useful medicines, of which many continue to be 
employed in modern as in very ancient times. As we might 
expect from the mild habits, simple diet, and unexcitable 
constitutions of the Hindoos, with attention to regimen, 
