fcience, it should not be forgotten that odours, strongly aromatic or offensively fetid, had their share in the practice of the Hindoo phyfician; and certain precious ftones, of the more coftly kind, worn as amulets, were not supposed to be without a fovereign virtue in the cure of diseases.

WAR, to which the Rajah or military tribe had a natural and authorized propenfity, and regulations for the conduct of which, in all the numerous branches of that fcience, which confequently prove their early acquaintance with it, engage a large part of the Hindoo code, could not have been carried on, efpecially with fuch inftruments as the battleaxe, and others then made ufe of, without dreadful laceration of the human frame; and it would be too cruel a reflection on any race of men, however abhorrent at the fight of blood, to fuppofe the unhappy victims would be left to perish without an effort to ftaunch the ftreaming wound whence life was iffuing. In thefe cafes, the applica-; tion of bandages, with the addition of certain leaves or roots bruifed or steeped in balfamic oils, or unguents formed of the vulnerary herbs, were all that could be employed

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ployed by a race of men, who, from fuperftitious principles, are faid in general to have avoided, as much as poffible, the use of the lancet, and even to this day to continue entirely ignorant of anatomical diffec

tions.

However inferior the knowledge of the Hindoos in the practice of the more intricate branches of medicine, their early refpect for the profeffion is evident, by their making a phyfician, by name Danwantara, one of the fourteen retnas, or precious things recovered from the ocean after the deluge; and from their most ancient medical book, entitled Chereca, being believed by them to be the work of SEEVA. That deficiency of knowledge, however, is by no means an afcertained fact, but rather the contrary; for, Sir William Jones declares that he had himself feen Indian prescriptions taken from their ancient medical treatifes, one confifting of fifty-four, and another of fixty-fix, ingredients; but fuch compofitions, he adds, are always to be fufpe&ed, fince the effect of one ingredient may destroy that of another; and it were better to find certain accounts of a fingle leaf or berry, than to be acquainted

with the most elaborate compounds, unless they too have been proved by a multitude of fuccefsful experiments. "The noble deobftruent oil extracted from the Eranda-nut, the whole family of Balfams, the incomparable ftomachic root from Columbo, the fine aftringent ridiculously called Japan earth, but in truth produced by the decoction of an Indian plant, have long been used in Asia; and who can foretel what glorious discoveries of other oils, roots, and falutary juices, may yet be made?"*

In another place he acquaints us that infinite advantage may be derived by Europeans from the various medical books in Sanfcreet, which contain the names and defcriptions of Indian plants and minerals, with their uses, difcovered by experience, in curing diforders; and there is a vaft collection of them from the Cheraca, above-mentioned as the work of SEEVA, down to the Roganirupana and the Nidana, which are comparatively modern. Of medicine, however, fyftematically formed into a science, he forbids us, after all, to expect finding any ancient treatise whatever,

Afiatic Refearches, vol. i. p.409, London, quarto edit.

perhaps,

perhaps, in all the Oriental world; what in time may be discovered will be a mere empirical history of diseases and remedies as now, practifed in India and the greatest part of Afia by Brahmins and Mahomedans.*

In many of the medical pursuits of the Indians, a certain degree of chemical knowledge was effentially neceffary, and the fame fcientific skill by which they were enabled to extract the colour from indigo, fandal, and other vegetable productions, to give the vivid dyes to their manufactured cottons, would doubtless direct their efforts in extracting the virtues of thofe rich botanical and mineral treasures which their country in fuch abundance produced for the more important purposes of health. Their chemistry, however, opens an immenfe field for dif cuffion; and, on that account, I forbear going at any length into the fubject, till it comes regularly before us in this review of Indian literature. What I fhall have to observe upon it will merely concern the science under confideration, and as it is connected with a fubject extremely interefting, but very much

Afiatic Researches, vol. iv. p. 350.

misconceived;

mifconceived; I mean, whether in reality anatomical diffections have always been looked upon with that horror with which they are now regarded in India.

I fhall commence the concise ftrictures, which I have at present to offer on the subject, with obferving, that, though from the general flow advance of mankind in intellectual improvement, we ought to be extremely cautious of conceding too much even to Indian ingenuity; yet it cannot be denied, that, the mine of knowledge once fprung, that curious and docile race ardently and vigorously purfued their investigations, and penetrated that mine to the profoundest depth their limited means of refearch would allow of. Hence, probably, a very few ages elapfed before the combination of a thousand incidental circumftances led them to become gradually acquainted with the two grand pillars of all genuine medicine, anatomy and chemistry. The offering up of human victims to Cali, the fable goddefs of India, and their blood in confequence profufely shed by the ancient Indians in the Naramedha facrifice, a practice forbidden the modern Brahmins, though fometimes practifed, even

at