"Healing are the watery billows, water cools the fever's glow,

Healing against every plague, health to thee brings water's flow."

In the Atharvaveda are also found charms, which indicate from the color of drugs their effect upon the body, as e. g. gold-hammer and saffron in jaundice, red remedies and especially red cows in diseases of the vital force (the blood). From the formula "Form to form, force to force" (rûpamrûpam, vayovayas) we may even deduce a sort of primitive homœopathy.

Finally, in the following passage we find an ancient and very humiliating trace of the association of physicians with ordinary tradesmen, together with a nice knowledge of human nature:

"Various are the desires of men: the wagoner longs for wood, the doctor for diseases' an example of the proverbial wisdom of the Indians, of which the best specimens are to be found particularly in the Vedanta.'

2

The medical mythology of the Indians names, as the god of physicians and physician to the gods, Dhanvantari (Danavantra, Danavantri), who, entwined by the serpent Vasuki, leans upon Mandar, the mountain of the gods, which shoots up out of the milky sea. According to tradition, he was sent upon the earth by Indra, when the world was sick, and here educated many physicians, among whom was Susruta, son of the Fakirking Visvamithra, of whom Heine sings so disrespectfully. Brahma himself was likewise a god of medicine, as well as his son Dakshas, and the two sons of the sun Asvin, together with Buden, whose mother, the wife of Brahaspati, conceived him in adultery with Tschandra. A female "specialist" among the Indian deities was Duti ka Takurani (goddess of the small-pox).

Numerous priests from the caste of the Brahmans, and their sub-castes, the Vaisya and Vaidya, officiated as teachers of medicine and as physicians among the Indians. The Vaidyas, as the higher of the two sub-castes, included the physicians proper, while the Vaisyas, or lower caste, furnished nurses. Besides the practising physicians, there were the ordinary physicians of princes (who had also kitchen-doctors), as well as others who accompanied them to war, that is military physicians. In like manner there were veterinarians, some of them too possessed of considerable scientific attainments. Indeed even the ordinary physicians paid some atten1. Vedanta, the end, object or philosophy of the Veda. It is a mark of wisdom, too, that these speak not only of a dread of death, but also of a fear of life, which is often more justifiable. As the Indian medicine of the present day is still identical with the ancient doctrines, so the religion of the Indians about 50 years ago recurred to the Vedânta, or Upanishads. For New Brahmanism (Brahmasamâj), begun about 50 years ago by Ram-Mohun Roy, and advanced by Keshub Chunder Sen (died 1882), is nothing but a reformation, mutatis mutandis. All of which is proof of the tenacious force of primeval forms of culture.

2. Like almost all people who live in a state of nature, the Indians practised originally a worship of their ancestors (Max Müller), from which may have developed everywhere the anthropomorphic doctrine of gods.

tion to, or rather wrote upon veterinary medicine, e. g. Susruta. A penalty was imposed upon the faulty treatment of the lower animals, and in India, even to-day, there are institutions for the care of beasts (introduced by Azoka), and, strange to say, for even vermin. Indian medical practice is distinguished from that of all other people of antiquity by the fact that it recognizes no proper specialists, but simply physicians practising general medicine.

The study and practice of the Indian physicians, however, are controlled by regulations, which give evidence of a very earnest and worthy conception of the medical profession, and embody truths acknowledged even to-day; yet they impose upon the physician certain external requirements, the estimation of which is characteristic of the childlike mind of the people, though the adoption of some of them would seem, if not necessary. at least useful, for us of the present day. There were demanded of the physician a fine person, absence of passion, decorum, chastity, temperance, amiability, veracity, consideration for the sick, generosity, diligence. earnestness, freedom from boasting, secrecy, a desire for knowledge, which scorns not even the lessons of an enemy, and above all reflection and independence of thought. Moreover it is said:

"A physician who desires success in his practice, his own profit, a good name, and finally a place in heaven, must pray daily for the welfare of all living creatures, first of the Brahmans and of the - cow (a sacred animal also among the Egyptians).

. . The physician should wear his hair short, keep his nails clean and cut close, and wear a sweet-smelling dress (for this we require no special directions to-day). He should never leave the house without a cane or umbrella; he should avoid especially any familiarity with women. . . . . Let his speech be soft, clear, pleasant. Transactions in the house should not be bruited abroad." (Haeser.) The last advice is found also in the Hippocratic Oath.

Medical instruction, which comprises the learning by heart of the medical doctrines taught orally," is imparted by the Brahmans, and begins in early youth, a regulation which we find again among the Greeks, and indeed in the ordinances of Charlemagne. The pupil must first select a good text-book and then a good teacher. Instruction embraces the theory of medicine and a practical course at the bedside, with the performance of operations on gourds, onions, skins filled with water etc. The pupil must begin to study early in the morning (after having rinsed his mouth, evacu1. It seems we must ascribe to this ancient source the famous doctors'-staff, which plays so nice a rôle of grave augury in Hogarth's "Consultation". The yellow sun-shade is just being introduced among us

2. Even at the present day the Indian students-the Srotriyas--learn the Veda from the lips of their Guru (teacher), never from a manuscript, and still less from a printed edition. Subsequently they again teach it in the same way to their own pupils. Theological students pursue their studies for eight years, and learn by heart about 12 lines a day (Max Müller). Among the Greeks, or Hippocratists, and the scholars of the age of Charlemagne, the methods of teaching and learning were the same, and hence it was ordered that instruction should begin at an early period, because in youth the memory is strongest.