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mentioned musk, rhubarb, ginseng, the larvae of the 
silk-worm, &c. ; while among the exotic articles are opium, 
assafcetida, and many aromatics, as nutmegs, cloves, cinna- 
mon, and pepper. It is curious to observe the number of 
animal products which they employ as medicinal articles; 
as the bones of tigers and elephants, the horns of animals, 
and the fins of fishes, with reptiles, snails, and scorpions. 
It is interesting to find among them also, the employment 
internally of cinnabar and the oxide of mercury, as well 
as of the oxide and sulphuret of arsenic. I may briefly 
remark, that many articles are common to the Hindoo and 
Chinese lists of Materia Medica. From the translation 
of a Chinese account of India, published in the Asiatic 
Journal, July 1836, it will be seen that there was constant 
intercourse between these countries even before the Christian 
era, by means of travellers and ambassadors ; aud that 
Buddhist priests in visiting China, took with them as 
presents classical Indian books. It is also worthy of 
notice, in connexion with the chapter on this subject in 
Susruta, that in A.D. 648, the Emperor of China having 
sent an ambassador to India, this officer met with a 
doctor, who told him that he was 200 years old, and that 
he possessed the recipe of immortality. Upon hearing 
which, a second embassy was dispatched in search of the 
philosophical stone. 
If we now revert to the north, we may readily concede 
that from the position and history of Persia, there must 
always have been considerable intercourse between it and 
India. But independent of this, we have positive testi- 
mony on the subject, as the Baron de Sacy, in his account 
of the now well-known Sanscrit origin of theFables of Pilpay, 
states that these were first translated into Pehlevi during 
the reign of the Persian King Nooshirwan, who ascended 
the throne in 531, and died in 579; and who is reported 
