REVIEW 
OF WORKS ON SCIENCE 
AND 
JOURNAL OF FOREIGN SCIENCE AND THE ARTS. 
EMBRACING 
MINERALOGY, GEOLOGY, NATURAL HISTORY, PHYSICS, &c. 
REVIEW. 
Journal of the Asiatic Society, 1835. Ana- 
lysis of a Tibetan Medical Worlc, By M. 
Alexander Csoma De Koros. 
It is a subject of no small curiosity to 
observe the methods by which natives of 
different countries adapt the means to the end 
in the pursuit and attainment of those bless- 
ings which providence has placed at their 
disposal, and it becomes matter of infinitely 
higher admiration to perceive how the same 
providence has supplied to all lands the pos- 
session of such materials as tend to mitigate 
the trials and the evils inseparable from the 
condition of our existence in this world. We 
find in every quarter of the globe these mani- 
festations of almighty care, exacting our hum- 
blest and most unqualified gratitude. Ihe 
Indian, in his forest, vegetating in a state but 
little superior to instinct, yet discovers through 
the medium of his understanding some spon- 
taneous production of the soil, administering 
to his comfort and his health. A ray of in- 
tellectual light pierces the gloom by which he 
is surrounded, and enables him to asceitain 
what is essential to the vigor of his frame, the 
cure of his disease, and the prolongation of 
existence by the use of such medicaments as 
the bounty of nature has placed within his 
reach. His simpler remedies command a 
prompt and efficacious result, because the ge- 
neral abstemiousness and unartificial course of 
his career, render the body more subservient to 
the power of medicine, however rude the 
treatment or confined the knowledge of his 
malady. But as society advances, refinement 
creates a thousand artificial wants, which 
habit converts to realities, until more intimate 
acquaintance with the ait, as a Science, is 
required to counteract their influences by the 
application of such skill as will adjust the 
relief to the peculiar nature of the causa 
which calls for it. As men become more en- 
lightened they seek refinements which gene- 
rate diseases foreign to their original condition. 
To check the properties of these a minuter 
observation of their sources is obviously de- 
manded ; and however lamentable the con- 
viction that luxury has introduced number- 
less unnecessary afflictions as its consequence, 
we have still abundant reason to be thankful 
that the progress of Science at least kept pace 
Vy'ith that of society. 
We have been drawn into these reflections 
by the perusal of the leading article in the 
Asiatic Journal for the month of May, 1835. 
It is entitled, “ An Analysis of Tibetan 
Medicine,” and has been supplied by M. 
Alexander Csoma de Koros, a name already 
familiar in Oriental literature ; and it forms 
in a certain degree a commentary upon our 
text, by shewing to what extent research has 
carried its disciples onward to an intermediate 
state between the want of all civilization and 
the acquirement of so much knowledge as be- 
longs to a certain grade of it. It is remarka- 
ble that such an insight should have been 
gained at so early a period, (for the work was 
written in the 8th century,) and that, having 
overcome so much, the same talent should hav® 
stopped short in its career, even up to this 
date. In Europe the progress of Science is 
and has been perpetual since the dark ages ; 
the last step forming but a foundation stone 
for the erection of the next. Unimpeded by 
the obstacles of prejudice, or a fondness for 
ancestral usage, when opposed to the further- 
ance of larger views, the stream of knowledge 
flows clearer, freer, broader, daily. Each hour 
brings to light some novelty, some perception, 
some improvement which industry and re- 
flection are propelling forward to perfection. 
The wisdom of to-day eclipses the science of 
yesterday, and the more the quantity that is 
