12 
STATE OF PHARMACY IN PERSIA. 
inflammatory condition has been subdued by bleeding, general 
or topical. The following case affords an example of its 
efficacy. 
A female, aged twenty-seven years, had, during the last four 
years of her life, suffered from neuralgia, originating from the 
spinal column, in the region of the upper dorsal vertebrae; 
the paroxysms were extremely violent. The iron had been 
used, but without effect; and the solution of volatile oil of 
mustard was applied morning and evening, with decided 
mitigation of the symptoms, and diminished frequency of the 
paroxysms. 
It has also been employed successfully in colic. 
If given internally the proportion is two drops to a six ounce 
mixture; dose, §ss. 
ART. — III. STATE OF PHARMACY IN PERSIA. 
By M. Julia de Fontenelle. 
Medico-chirugical and pharmaceutic knowledge is little 
advanced in Persia; in serious diseases the Persians still 
betake themselves to the predictions of astrologers, and to the 
mystic incantations of their hakkins, (doctors.) Believing 
in the singular doctrines of hot and cold diseases, and in male 
and female remedies, which they have derived from the 
works of the Arabians of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries^ 
as, for instance, Rosa, Jibenzoar, Jivicenna, Sibusenna, &c, 
ignorant, moreover, of the first elements of anatomy, of physi- 
ology, and chemistry, they remain stationary, and repel all 
attempts to instruct them in the true principles of the art. 
In fact, whoever was seen dissecting would be regarded as 
impious; and he who would apply himself to chemical 
researches, would be supposed to be in correspondence with 
the devil, and would be regarded as a magician. The art 
of curing is divided, in Persia, into three branches-~the 
