65 
If we now consider the period when translations were 
first made from these works into other languages, 
though indicating rather the age when neighbouring 
at the Court of Harun-al-Rashid." The fact of the translation of numerous 
works on medicine from the Sanscrit into Arahic we have long known, 
from the list of those works given by Sir W. Ainslie at the end of his 
Materia Indica ; but the age when these translations were made we were 
unacquainted with. The nature of the works of Charaka and Susruta we 
had a glimpse of from Professor Wilson's translations ; but the fact of 
Manka and Saleh being at the Court of Harun-al-Rashid is extremely 
curious, as well as that of the later Greek physicians having had access to 
some Hindoo works. Actuarius and Myrepsus are unimportant, as both 
were subsequent to the Arabs; but even previous to them, as I have 
more than once mentioned to Professor Wilson, the occurrence of long 
prescriptions, composed of tropical products, appeared to me to be taken 
from Hindoo works. 
Tlie work of Susruta, it may be useful to remark, is now easily procu- 
rable, as it was one of those ordered to be printed by the Indian Govern- 
ment for the use of its native subjects ; but strange to say, the printing 
was stopped, of this as well as of many others, when most were nearly 
completed: the first volume and three-fourths of the second of the 
Susruta having been printed. Fortunately the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, 
with the spirit and zeal which has ever distinguished it, and with a true 
knowledge of what was for the benefit of the government itself, undertook, 
at their own risk, to complete the abandoned works. If the occurrence 
had not been so recent, it might, like the burning of the Alexandrian 
library, from its incredibility, have afforded disputants or defenders an 
opportunity of denying, or, at least, doubting the fact. The Asiatic 
Society has been energetically supported in its representations by the 
Royal Asiatic Society; and it is gratifying to state, also by the " Societe 
Asiatique" of Paris, and by German literati, in promoting the sale of 
these works on the Continent. That their efforts, coupled with the 
accession of Lord Auckland to the Indian Government have been in some 
degree successful, we have the assurance, in comparing the statement at 
the end of 1835 with that at the conclusion of the year 1835, of the 
Editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta. 
" Without venturing to impugn in any degree the wisdom or policy of a 
measure, which has in the face of all India withdrawn the countenance of 
government from the learned natives of the country, and pronounced a 
verdict of condemnation and abandonment on its literature, it may be 
allowable in this place to prophecy, that the conduct of the Asiatic Society, 
in stepping forward to rescue the half- printed volumes of Sanscrit, Arabic, 
and Persian, will be approved and applauded by every learned Society and 
every scholar in Europe. Left in their unfinished state, they would h.'.ve 
indeed merited the opprobrious designation of an ' accumulation of waste 
K paper,' 
