^ovembefSr}      The  Materia  Medica  of  Ceylon.  533 
ingredients  in  each  potion  increasing  in  direct  ratio  with  the  contin- 
uance and  severity  of  the  disease.  A  mild  form  of  fever  would  be 
treated  with  a  decoction  of  the  1  Five  Minor  Roots  :'  Desmodium 
gangeticinn,  Uraria  lagopodioides,  Solannni  Jacquini,  S.  indicum  and 
Tribidns  terrestris,  which  are  believed  to  cure  fever  due  to  deranged 
phlegm,  catarrh,  etc.  A  severer  form  would  be  ascribed  perhaps  to 
deranged  air,  requiring  the  use  of  the  1  Five  Major  Plants :'  Atgle 
marmeloSy  Calosanthes  indica,  Gmelina  arborea,  Stereospermum  sua- 
veolens  and  Premna  speciosa.  In  remittent  fever,  etc.,  all  ten  may  be 
prescribed  together,  and  in  typhoid  fever,  with  head  symptoms,  the 
same  with  the  addition  of  eight  or  ten  other  ingredients." 
When  conducted  by  intelligent  and  skillful  practitioners,  native 
practice,  it  is  said,  is  not  unlike  the  modern  treatment  of  medicine 
in  Europe.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  practice  of  native  medicine 
has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  men,  many  of  whom  do  not  possess  even 
the  little  knowledge  which  may  be  gathered  from  the  medical  books 
in  the  vernacular.  The  following  list  of  vegetable  drugs  is 
selected  as  being  used  by  the  native  practitioners,  and  is  derived 
from  plants  indigenous  to  Ceylon.  The  uses  given  under  each  one 
have  been  taken  down  at  first  hand  from  the  mouths  of  the  vedaralas, 
or  village  doctors,  themselves.  It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed 
that  they  are  in  all  or  even  in  a  majority  of  cases,  based  on  any  real 
properties.  Much  is  considered  to  be  traditional  merely,  or  empiric 
and  in  much  the  same  manner  as  up  to  the  seventeenth  century  in 
Europe,  numerous  plants  which  are  now  considered  quite  inert,  were 
credited  with  virtues  on  the  authority  of  older  writers  and  astrolo- 
gers. The  extreme  complexity  of  Sinhalese  prescriptions  (many  of 
which  are  of  great  antiquity  and  handed  down  from  generation  to 
generation,)  must  often  render  it  impossible  to  distinguish  the  effects 
of  any  particular  ingredient : 
Abrus  precatorius,  Linne*  (Olin-da-wel),  N.  O.  Leguminosae.  The\seeds  of 
this  plant  have  been  used  for  many  years  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  West  Indies, 
for  the  making  of  various  articles  of  decoration.  Some  time  ago  it  attracted 
considerable  attention  as  "the  weather  plant,"  or  vegetable  barometer,  and 
later  it  was  said  to  be  used  habitually  by  the  "  chamars,"  or  native  hide-traders 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Calcutta,  as  a  cattle  poison.  In  this  latter  use  the 
seeds,  kneaded  into  a  paste,  were  smeared  on  tiny  pegs  of  bamboo,  and  with 
these  they  pierced  the  cows'  hides.  The  kooch  poison,  when  taken  internallv, 
has,  however,  been  found  to  be  uninjurious,  and  another  extraordinary  fact 
said  to  be  discovered  is  that  a  cow  treated  inwardly  with  certain  preparations  of 
the  kooch  poison  becomes  proof  against  being  poisoned  by  subsequent  pin 
