532  7 he  Materia  Medica  of  Ceylon.  {^vSbJjSKL' 
not  only  confounded  with  essential  ones,  but  receive  special  treat- 
ment as  distinct  diseases.  The  treatment  accordingly  is  more  theo- 
retical than  empirical,  every  symptom  being  referred  to  some 
deranged  humor,  which  alone  receives  attention,  and  has  to  be  rec- 
tified according  to  the  rules  laid  down  by  recognized  authorities. 
The  true  significance  of  any  group  of  symptoms  as  indicating  any 
definite  morbid  condition  or  any  particular  stage  of  disease,  is  barely, 
if  at  all,  realized  by  the  native  practitioner,  their  only  value  being  to 
assist  the  memory  to  recall  the  particular  Sanskrit  stanza  which 
details  the  orthodox  treatment  to  be  adopted  under  the  circum- 
stances. No  attempt  is  made  to  anticipate  or  arrest  morbid  changes 
or  guide  them  to  a  healthy  issue,  except  in  so  far  as  this  is  included 
in  the  general  line  of  treatment,  for  the  simple  reason  that  a  pathology 
based  on  actual  observation  of  the  dead  body  finds  no  place  in  the 
native  text-books  of  medicine,  and  no  native  practitioner,  however 
experienced,  would  care  to  verify  by  a  post-mortem  examination  the 
fanciful  theories  on  which  their  system  of  medicine  is  founded.  A 
very  common  practice  with  native  practitioners  is  to  allow  a  disease 
to  progress  for  some  time  with  a  view  to  <  mature '  it  or  '  to  bring  it 
to  a  head  '  before  any  attempt  is  made  to  remove  it.  A  quick 
recovery,  whether  under  European  or  native  treatment,  is  depre- 
cated as  likely  to  lead  to  a  relapse,  since  sufficient  time  has  not  been 
allowed  for  the  restoration  of  a  permanent  healthy  equilibrium 
between  the  contending  humors. 
"  They  have  great  faith  in  critical  days,  and  in  the  influence  of  the 
different  phases  of  the  moon,  each  of  which  is  suffered  to  preside 
over  its  own  set  of  organs,  so  that  purgatives,  for  instance,  however 
much  they  may  be  needed  in  any  given  case,  are  never  prescribed  on 
the  day  (kala)  on  which  the  moon  exercises  its  influence  on  the 
bowels,  nor  emetics  on  the  day  on  which  it  presides  over  the  stomach, 
etc.  As  they  seldom  make  use  of  powerful  or  hurtful  remedies, 
however,  and  are  content  in  the  majority  of  cases  to  relieve  disease 
chiefly  by  acting  on  the  emunctories  by  means  of  emetics,  purga- 
tives and  low  diet,  native  practice  is  usually  not  often  mischievous 
even  when  it  fails  to  effect  a  cure.  In  most  cases  the  treatment  only 
serves  to  change  an  acute  disease  into  one  of  a  chronic  character, 
while  recovery  from  a  simple  affection  is  protracted,  the  patient 
being  kept  half-starved  on  gruel  and  made  to  swallow  large  quanti- 
ties of  infusions  and  decoctions  of  medicinal  herbs,  the  number  of 
