They have as yet little or no confidence in European physicians and medicines. They however, are obliged to acknowledge their ability as surgeons, and they are beginning to have confidence in quinine in the treatment of fevers. They know nothing of anatomy; and consequently nothing of surgery. They do not pretend to lance even a common boil, but depend upon opening it with poultices.
The first amputation was performed in Siam by Dr. Bradly, in 1837. A company of priests at the dedication of a temple were playing with fireworks, when a cannon burst, and killed several and wounded many more. Dr. Bradly offered his professional services, but all the wounded refused, except two. He amputated the arm of one of them, and dressed their other wounds, and they soon recovered, but all the others died. Inoculation for small-pox was introduced by the missionary physicians in 1838. They found themselves surrounded by the disease, and being without vaccine virus, they inoculated their own children as the next best thing that could be done. It acted so well that the king sent a number of the royal physicians to examine into it, and learn how it was done. Having learned, he sent them out through the city to inoculate.
Vaccination was introduced in 1840, from a scab sent out from Boston via the Cape of Good Hope. It finally died out, and was again renewed from time to time. It is now constantly kept up by Dr. Campbell, a Scotch physician, in connection with the English Consulate. The natives no longer hesitate to have their children vaccinated, and it has done much towards staying the ravages of the small-pox.
The first operation for cataract was successfully performed by Dr. Bradly, upon the eyes of a distinguished nobleman and minister of state.
They know nothing of obstetrics, and those cases where nature needs to be assisted, are left to die. Superstition too, has enveloped the whole afiair in silly and ridiculous notions. Since they believe in the transmigration of souls, and that the spirits of all persons who are born have existed in some previous state, their books on midwifery pretend to teach parents how they may know whence their children came, and whether the expected stranger will be a boy or girl. There is also a choice in the day of the week upon which a child is born. Wednesday and Thursday are particularly favorable for robust constitutions, and bright intellects. Children born on Sunday, are liable to be careless and reckless all their lives.
This business is almost wholly committed to elderly women or midwives. Male physicians are seldom called in on such occasions, unless the case requires extraordinary skill, and then they are as ignorant as the midwives themselves. They always attempt to assist natural labor by the use of domestic medicines, shampooing, and other manipulations, and in many instances do positive injury by deranging natural labor. Facts however, prove that parturition amongst the Siamese is much shorter and easier than amongst Europeans and Americans. One reason is, that they have more of the animal in their natures, and doubtless the kind of dress they wear has much to do with it—their dress being more in accordance with nature.
It is after the birth of the child that the Siamese mothers have to endure torture. It is a custom amongst them, as immutable as the laws of the Medes and Persians, that the mother after the birth of the child, must lie by a hot fire from five to thirty days. After the first child they must remain by the fire about thirty days, but the time gradually diminishes with every subsequent birth. She is placed on a hard board, with nothing under her but a thin mat, and no clothing but a narrow waist-cloth and is thus obliged to lie within four or five feet of a hot fire. This is generally, too, in a small room, with no chimney, but the fire is on an open furnace, and the smoke is allowed to escape as best it can. In such a climate as Siam, this must be positively injurious, and it certainly makes young mothers look prematurely old. It is not known whence this custom originated. It is also practised amongst the Cambodians, Peguans, Burmese, and Cochin Chinese.
CHAPTER IX.
FARMING AND PRODUCTS.
The staple of the country is rice. Their farming operations are simple in the extreme, and as the soil is very fertile, I know of no place where the husbandman is so abundantly rewarded for so little labor. Their plough is exactly like that used in Scripture times, and pictures of which you have doubtless seen in books on biblical antiquities. It consists simply of a crooked stick, answering for beam and handle, to which a sheath is attached, to the end of which a small shovel is affixed. It has but one handle, and is difficult to hold, and hence from the same kind of an instrument we have the Scripture illustration, "No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of heaven." To this plough they attach a couple of oxen, or Indian buffaloes, and when sufficient rain has fallen to soften the ground a little, they scratch it over with their little plough. When sufficient rain has fallen to turn the ground into a perfect mortar, they stir it up again, and sow the rice upon the mud. This they sometimes harrow over with a brush or rude wooden harrow. About this time the water in the rivers begins to overflow the banks, and gradually overflows the rice fields to the depth of three or four feet. The rice however, manages to grow, and keep head above water, and so long as it can do this it is all right. The water keeps up until the rice is out in heads, and then it begins to subside until harvest, when the ground is generally quite dry. I have rode in my boat for a whole day, directly over the rice fields, when the rice was coming out in heads, and found the water in many places four feet deep, but the heads of the rice were waving in the wind majestically above it. The best quality of rice is raised by transplanting. The ground is prepared the same as before, but instead of sowing broadcast, they take the rice plants, and place them in the soft mud with the hand. This work is generally done by women and children, and they do it very dextrously, placing the plant in the mud with the thumb and finger almost as fast as they can walk. It is put down in rows, about two or three inches apart. This is the same kind of rice as the other, only the grains are fuller and better, and it commands a better price in market.