TIBET. 
41 3 
means of information respecting the state of a patient, than that of 
feeling the pulse; and they confidently say, that the seat of pain 
and disease, is easily to be discovered, not so much from the fre¬ 
quency of the pulse, as its vibratory motion. They feel the pulse, 
at the wrist, with their three fore-fingers, first of the right, and then 
of the left hand; after pressing more or less on the artery, and occa¬ 
sionally removing one or two of the fingers, they determine what the 
disease is. They do not eat any thing the day on which they take 
physic, but endeavour to make up the loss afterwards, by eating more 
freely than before, and using such medicines as they think will occa¬ 
sion costiveness. 
The many simples in use with them, are from the vegetable king¬ 
dom, collected chiefly in Boutan. They are in general inoffensive, and 
very mild in their operation. Carminatives and aromatics, are given 
in' coughs, colds, and affections of the breast. The centaury, corian¬ 
der, carraway, and cinnamon, are of this sort. This last is, with them, 
the bark of the root of that species of Laurus, formerly mentioned as 
a native of this country. The bark from the root is, in this plant, the 
only part which partakes of the cinnamon taste; and I doubt very 
much if it could be distinguished, by the best judges, from what we 
call the true cinnamon. The bark, leaves, berries, and stalks of many 
shrubs and trees, are in use with them, all in decoction. Some have 
much of the astringent bitter taste of our most valuable medicines, 
and are generally employed here, with the same view, to strengthen 
the powers of digestion, and mend the general habit. Their principal 
purgative medicines are brought by the Chinese to Lassa. They had 
