55 
Some authors, it is said, prescribe decoctions made of meat. 
The Leham or electuary, is composed of a strong decoction 
of dry powdered ingredients, and some oil, or ghee (clarified 
butter), and sugar or honey. Dr. Heyne also gives, from 
the Treatise on Medicine, the directions for making 
" Flowers of Zinc, 1 ' also of their " Iron Cendurams," 
which are " so many modes of preparing martial ethiops,'" 
informing us that they " consider the colour of medicines 
prepared from metals, as the greatest criterion of their 
excellence. 11 There are also several preparations of copper, 
which the Hindoos have long used both internally and 
externally. In the midst of the good sense displayed in 
many of their practical instructions, we may in these 
days smile at the ceremonies with which these are directed 
to be accompanied. Thus it is explained, " that by 
the prayers and reading of the Veda by the Bramins, 
Brahma and Vishnu will be pleased ; by the light we 
conciliate the favour of Bhagavatadu, or the supreme 
being; by the heaps of the different kinds of grain we 
please the nine heavenly bodies ; by the painted ground 
in particular we gratify the sun ; by the painted goblet, 
Aswary, the god of physic ; and by the pearls and precious 
stones we conciliate the favour of Latchmy Davie, the 
goddess of riches. 1 ' — (p. 147.) 
And it is further recommended for his good, that 
" Before the patient takes the medicine, the god of physic 
is to be worshipped, in the person of his deputy, the phy- 
sician, who must be paid well for his services. 11 
In the abstract of the Tibetan work, all medicines are 
subdivided as remedial agents, into thirty-seven different 
classes, and consist of 715 different substances. With 
respect to such as I am acquainted with, in all these old 
works, it appears to me, that with the exception of Assa- 
