formed once in this case, and, as the man was considered in a very bad state, and notwithstanding got well, the cure was attributed to this remedy. It is also performed for relief in cases of general languor and inactivity of the system; but, in such instances, the only endeavour to produce irritation by passing the reed without any thread or artificial opening: the present king had it thus performed on him for this purpose; and two days afterwards he said he felt himself quite light and full of spirits.

The natives of these islands are very subject to enlarged testicles, and for this they sometimes perform the operation of boca (castration). Mr. Mariner's limited observation on this subject does not authorize him to speak with any degree of certainty in regard to the precise nature of these tumefactions. Their mode of performing this operation is summary enough: a bandage being tied with some degree of firmness round the upper part of the scrotum, so as to steady the diseased mass, at the same time that the scrotum is closely expanded over it, an incision is made with bamboo, just large enough to allow the testicle to pass, which being separated from its cellular connexions, the cord is divided, and thus ends the operation: they neither tie the cord, nor take any pains to stop the bleeding; but, if the testicle be not very large, and the epidydimis not apparently diseased, they perform the operation by dissecting it from that body with the same instrument. The external wound is kept from closing by a pledget of the banána leaf, which is renewed every day till the discharge has ceased, and the scrotum is supported by a bandage. A profuse hæmorrhage is mostly the consequence of this operation: it was performed seven times within the sphere of Mr. Mariner's knowledge, during his stay; to three of which he was a witness: not one of the seven died. One of these cases was that of a man who performed the operation on himself: his left testicle was greatly enlarged, being about five or six inches in diameter, and gave him, at times, severe lancinating pains: two or three times he was about to have the operation performed by a native of Fiji, but his courage failed him when he came to the trial. One day, when Mr. Mariner was with him, he suddenly determined to perform the operation on himself; and it was not much sooner said than done: be tied on the bandage, opened the scrotum with a very steady hand, in a fit of desperation divided the cord and cellular substance together, and fell senseless on the ground: the hæmorrhage was very profuse. Mr. Mariner called in some persons to his assistance, and he was carried into a house, but did not become sensible for nearly an hour, and was in a very weak state from loss of blood: this affair confined him to the house for two or three months. There was one rare instance of a man, both of whose testes were affected with some species of sarcoma, to a degree almost beyond credit: when he stood up, his feet were necessarily separated to the distance of three quarters of a yard, and the loaded scrotum, or rather the morbid mass, reached to within six inches of the ground: there was no appearance of a penis, the urine being discharged from a small orifice about the middle of the tumour, that is to say, about a foot and a half below``

the

the os pubis. The man's general health was not bad; and he could even walk by the help of a stick, without having any sling or support for his burthen it was specifically lighter than fresh water, and considerably lighter than salt water, so as to produce much inconvenience to him when he bathed. He died at the island of Foa, about two or three months before Mr. Mariner left Vavaoo.

As to fractures, and dislocations of the extremities, it may be said that there is scarcely any native but what understands how to manage at least those that are most likely to happen: for they are very well acquainted with the general forms of the bones, and articulations of the extremities. They use splints made of a certain part of the cocoa-nut tree: for broken arms they use slings of gnatoo. In fractures of the cranium they allow nature to take her course without interfering, and it is truly astonishing what injuries of this kind they will bear without fatal consequences: there was one man whose skull had been so beaten in, in two or three places, by the blows of a club, that his head had an odd mis-shapen appearance, and yet this man had very good health, except when he happened to take cava, which produced a temporary insanity. Fractures of the clavicle and ribs Mr. Mariner never saw there.

The most common surgical operation among them is what they call tafa, which is topical blood-letting, and is performed by making, with a shell, incisions in the skin to the extent of about half an inch in various parts of the body, particularly in the lumbar region and extremities, for the relief of pains, lassitude, &c.; also for inflamed tumours they never fail to promote a flow of blood from the part; by the same means they open abscesses, and press out the purulent matter: in cases of hard indolent tumours, they either apply ignited tapa, or hot bread-fruit repeatedly, so as to blister the part, and ultimately to produce a purulent surface. Ill-conditioned ulcers, particularly in those persons whose constitution disposes to such things, are scarified by shells; those that seem disposed to heal are allowed to take their course without any application.

In cases of sprains, the affected part is rubbed with a mixture of oil and water, the friction being always continued in one direction, that is to say, from the smaller towards the larger branches of the vessels. Friction, with the dry hand, is also often used in similar and other cases, for the purpose of relieving pain.

In respect to inflammations of the eyes, which sometimes rise to a very great height, attended frequently with a considerable purulent discharge; they frequently have recourse to scarification by the ap plication of a particular kind of grass, the minute spicula with which it is replete dividing the inflamed vessels as it is moved upon the tunica adnata. To assist in reducing ophthalmic inflammations, they also drop into the eye an acid vegetable juice, and sometimes another of a bitter quality; the first is called vi, the latter bawlo. The spe cies of ophthalmia to which they are subject, though sometimes lingering, is stated scarcely ever to have produced serious consequences, and is not considered contagious. Mr. Mariner neither saw nor heard but of one man who had lost his sight by disease.

NO. 223.

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In cases of gunshot wounds, their main object is to lay the wound open, if it can be done with safety in respect to the larger blood-vessels and tendons, not only for the extraction of the ball, if it should still remain, but for the purpose of converting a fistulous into an open wound, that it may thereby heal sooner and better: if they have to cut down near larger vessels, they use bamboo in preference to the shell; the same near tendons, that there may be less chance of injuring them. They always make incisions nearly in the course of the muscles, or, at least, parallel with the limb.

The amputation of a limb is an operation very seldom performed; nevertheless it has been done in at least twelve individuals. Mr. Mariner seeing one day a man without an arm, curiosity led him to enquire how it happened, and found that he had been one of the twelve principal cooks of Toogoo Ahoo, the tyrant of Tonga, and had submitted to the amputation of his left arm. This operation was performed by means of a large heavy axe used for the purpose. The bleeding was not so profuse as might be imagined, owing, no doubt, to the bluntness of the instrument and violence of the blow. This stump appeared to Mr. Mariner to be a very good one; the arm was taken off about two inches above the elbow. Ten were stated to have done very well; of the remaining two, one died of excessive hæmorrhage, and the other of mortification. There was also a man living at the island of Vavaoo who had lost a leg in consequence of the bite of a shark, which is not a very uncommon accident; but there was something unusual in this man's particular case: his leg was not bitten off, but the flesh was almost completely torn away from about five inches below the knee down to the foot, leaving the tibia and fibula greatly exposed, and the foot much mangled: he was one of those who chose to perform his own operations; with persevering industry, therefore, he sawed nearly through the two bones with a shell, renewing his tedious and painful task every day till he had nearly accomplished it, and then completed the separation by a sudden blow with a stone! The stump never healed. Mr. Mariner had this account from the man himself and many others.

Téfe, or the operation of circumcision, is thus performed; a narrow slip of wood, of a convenient size, being wrapped round with gnatoo, is introduced under the præputium, along the back of which a longitudinal incision is then made to the extent of about half an inch, either with bamboo or shell (the latter is preferred); this incision is carried through the outer fold, and the beginning of the inner fold, the remainder of the latter being afterwards torn open with the fingers: the end of the penis is then wrapped up in the leaf of a tree called gnatai, and is secured with a bandage: the boy is not allowed to bathe for three days: the leaf is renewed once or twice a day. At the Fiji islands this operation is performed by amputating a portion of the præputium, according to the Jewish rite.

The author describes gonorrhoea, yaws, elephantiasis, and lepra; but considers syphilis as unknown.

The

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The following is an Account of the State of Medicine in the Eastern Empire. From MILN's History of Mahometanism, a work just published.

THE knowledge which the Saracens possessed of medicine is a subject of curious inquiry, In the anatomical branch, they did little more than translate and paraphrase the Greek writers. The errors which their originals had made in anatomy became sacred; and, if the Arabs have described certain parts of the body with more exactness than Galen, these descriptions were only conjectures, or the consequence of the study of some Greek authors who have not descended to us. The Muhammedan laws prohibit dissections, because, in the opinion of the Musselmans, the soul does not depart from the body at the moment of death; it passes from one member to another till it centers in the breast, where it remains for a considerable time. The examination, by the angels, of the deceased person in his tomb, could not be made on a mutilated corpse. The physicians of the Arabs studied, therefore, only skeletons in the cemeteries. In most surgical cases, the Saracens implicitly followed the ancients; but one of the great disputes in the Arabic schools of medicine was, the propriety of the novel doctrine of Avicienna (a Spanish Moor), which opposed the recommendation of Galen and Hippocrates, that, in cases of pleurisy, the patient should be bled in the arm of the side which was afflicted.-For their knowledge of chemistry, so great a part of the basis of medicine, the Saracens have been deservedly applauded. We have no evidence that chemistry was cultivated by the Egyptians as a separate branch of science, or distinguished in its applications from a variety of other arts which must have been exercised for the support and convenience of human life. All of them had probably some dependence on chemical principles, but they were then, as they are at present, practised by the several artists without any theoretical knowledge of their respective employments. It is not known to what nation ought to be attributed the art of transmuting metals into gold; but, by way of distinction, this branch of knowledge was called Alchemy, as Al-Koran distinguished the sacred from other books. Che mistry, with the rest of the sciences, being banished from the other parts of the world, took refuge among the Arabs. Gebar, in the seventh or eighth, and others in the ninth, century of the Christian æra, wrote several chemical, or rather alchymical, books, in Arabic, In these works of Geber are contained such useful directions concerning the manner of conducting distillation, calcination, sublimation, and other chemical preparations, and such pertinent observafions respecting various minerals, as justly seem to entitle him to the character which some have given him of being the father of chemistry, the discoverer of the key to the richest treasures of nature, though he himself modestly confesses that he has done little else than abridge the doctrine of the ancients concerning the transmutation of metals. He mentions several mercurial preparations, such

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as the corrosive sublimate and red precipitate, nitric acid, muriatic acid, and many other chemical compositions.-The Herbal of Dioscorides was enriched by the Saracens with the addition of two thousand plants, and their knowledge of the vegetable world enabled them to insert in their pharmacopoeia several remedies which had been unknown to the Greeks. One great difference between, the Grecian and Saracen dispensatories was, that the medicines in the latter were of a milder nature than those in the former; another difference was the common use of sugar in lieu of honey. Dioscorides, speaking of the various species of honey, says, that there is a kind of it in a concrete state, called saccharon, which is found in reeds in India and Arabia Felix. He also describes its medicinal virtues. Galen writes upon it nearly in the same manner; but the history of the artificial preparation of sugar, by boiling or other means, was very imperfectly known. The Saracens appear, however, to have understood the art, for, by a mixture of sugar with other ingredients, they made various medicines with which the ancients were unacquainted. The labours of the Arabs might, even in the present day, be of service, if our physicians would study the Arabic language, and the medical writings of Mesvue, Gebar, Ranis, Averroes, and Avicienna. The theory of medicine was refined by the Saracens with various subtleties: the philosophy of Aristotle was introduced; and, if we cannot remark in it the beautiful simplicity of Hippocrates, we find the doctrines of Galen, though strangely disfigured in their practice. The physicians shewed no reserve, no circumspection, no simplicity. The popular taste for the marvellous induced them to resort to every means of imposing on the vulgar. Astrology was introduced, particular positions and appearances of the stars were studied in dangerous cases, and amu lets were in the possession of every successful and popular practiser of medicine.

Such was the general state of philosophy and the mathematics, of astronomy and medicine, in the most flourishing days of the Saracens. The historians of these people furnish us with no specific information respecting their knowledge of the other branches of letters and science. As all merit is relative, no accurate notion can be obtained from general epithets of praise, but a less fanciful estimate may be formed of their attention to philology, from the circumstance that the Escurial catalogue alone presents us with a list of two hundred and one works on Arabic grammar. The language, the purity of which was by these means so carefully preserved, was the prevailing tongue through the Moslem world; but, in Bagdad, that seat of learning as well as of empire, the Attic dialect, as it might be called, was spoken, Necessity compelled the Saracens to consult the ancients on the abstract sciences, but their general contempt for infidels and barbarians kept them from a knowledge of the historians, the poets, and the moralists, of Greece and Rome.

As discoverers and inventors, the Saracens have few claims to praise, but they formed the link which unites ancient and modern literature