OF IMPERFECT TYPES.
‘The diurnal and nocturnal encrease of sol-lunar power acting on constitutions in which the propensity to paroxysm is incomplete, or imperfect, has power only to produce paroxysms in coincidence with every second, third, or fourth, period of the tides, or others, more remote; constituting types, which, on account of this irregular coincidence, I have called imperfect.’
Doctor Balfour states, in a note, that, ‘In several cases of the plague, recorded by Dr. Patrick Russell, the febrile paroxysms returned obviously every four hours, in coincidence with the periods of the tides; and his predecessor and relation, the author of ’The Natural History of Aleppo,‘ asserts positively, that the generality of the fevers there, and, indeed, in almost all acute cases, are subject to exacerbations once or twice in twenty-four hours.’
In Cordiner’s Description of Ceylon, I find the following passage:—‘Medical men have discovered this swelling’ (viz. the elephantiasis) ‘to be an effect of fever, which returns on the patients monthly.’ (Vol. I. page 182.)
The natives, generally in the first instance, have recourse to the bit-noben or kala-neemuk, (i.e. black-salt,) a solution of which, though certainly very disgusting, on account of its taste, strongly reminding us of the scent of gun washings, or of rotten eggs, proves an excellent cathartic, and, if duly persisted in, rarely fails to rid the patient of an immense quantity of bile. That being effected, a strong decoction of cherrettah, a root about the size of slender birch twigs, but of a redder color, and possessing some of the properties of Peruvian bark, is frequently taken. But, the best medicine in the catalogue of Indian simples certainly is the lotah, or kaut-kullaigee, which is the kernel taken from the pod of a creeping kind of cow-itch. This kernel is extremely bitter, and possesses all the virtues of the bark; but with this advantage, that, in lieu of binding, it commonly proves very mildly aperient when taken to the amount of two or three nuts daily. I have often given it, with great success, during the paroxysms of an ague; having previously cleared the stomach and intestines by suitable means, such as ipecacuanha and calomel.
That we are absolutely in a state of ignorance regarding the medical properties of various plants, highly appreciated by the natives, cannot be denied; we must not, however, yield an implicit belief to the many marvellous stories related throughout Hindostan, of the extraordinary cures performed by their aid: many disproofs of such fables are publicly extant, and teach us to view the objects so highly extolled through the medium of a minifying glass; thereby to reduce their virtues to the proper standard of estimation. So fully was that learned, and zealous president of the Asiatic Society, Sir William Jones, impressed with an opinion of our overlooking many of the most valuable of nature’s vegetable productions, that, shortly after the formation of that excellent institution, he expressed a wish, an earnest one, indeed, for early framing a code of the botany of Hindostan in particular; and, in a short address to the society, urged, that a ‘Treatise on the Plants of India’ should be diligently and carefully drawn up. In that address, Sir William says, ‘Some hundreds of plants which are yet imperfectly known to European botanists, and, with the virtues of which we are wholly unacquainted, grow wild on the plains, and in the forests, of India. The ‘Amarcosh,’ an excellent vocabulary of the Sanscrit language, contains, in one chapter, the names of about three hundred medicinal vegetables; the ‘Medini’ may comprize as many more; and the ‘Dravyabidana,’ or, ‘Dictionary of Natural Productions,’ includes, I believe, a far greater number; the properties of which are distinctly related in medical tracts of approved authority.’
Here I must beg leave to enter my protest against the too ready acceptance of what the books above quoted may tender to our medical repositories; and that for the following reason; namely, although the natives may be sufficiently acquainted with certain properties of certain plants, yet, owing to a total ignorance of pathology, phisiology, nosology, and especially of the circulation of the blood, and of chemistry as applicable to analysis and synthesis, it is utterly impossible they should be able to act except by rote, and according to their ideas of specifics; whereby the virtues of the medicines in question are supposed to be applicable to all the stages, not only of the same, but of various diseases, totally opposite in their natures. It surely cannot require to be pointed out, how uncertain the results must be under such circumstances, even when each simple is administered separately, and with a patient attention to its operation: but, when we take into account the known fact, that, on most occasions where the native Huckeems, or Hakeems, prescribe, they rely greatly upon compounds of herbs and minerals; each having its virtues recorded in some popular distich, to dispute which would be considered an open avowal of consummate ignorance; I say, under such circumstances, we may fairly, and, in duty to ourselves should, hesitate to receive information from so impure a source. It is not my intention to depreciate the merits of many simples in use among the natives: I argue against their competency to estimate them; but, at the same time, entertain no doubt that their several books may lead us to the greatest advantages, by giving hints, which, being properly, but guardedly followed up, should enrich our catalogue of valuable remedies. This cannot be done in a few days, nor even in a few years: whenever it may be effected, I doubt not that the memory of that president, whose life was devoted to the service, not only of his existing fellow-creatures, but of posterity also, will be duly venerated. The Botanic Gardens established at the several Presidencies, under the care of medical gentlemen, duly qualified, offer the means of putting much assertion to the tests of chemistry, and of time: the former have not, as yet, been properly resorted to, and the latter has not run its due course, to enable the philosophical world to decide with precision.
In the first volume of the Asiatic Researches, the late Matthew Leslie, Esq. very sensibly observed, that ‘there are in our Indian provinces many animals, and many hundreds of medicinal plants, which have either not been described at all, or, what is worse, ill described, by the naturalists of Europe.’ In this remark there is much truth; but a certain portion of the very extensive meaning of Mr. Leslie, who was, assuredly, a man of considerable abilities, and who had much opportunity for research, will be received with caution, from the consideration of his avowed partiality towards native physicians; who, as I have just stated, are by no means competent to guide us through the mazes of botanical research. The state of medicine throughout India, (I mean among the natives,) is not such as to induce the belief that we shall obtain any valuable information among the Huckeems; of whom, full ninety-nine in the hundred are self-taught, as well as self-sufficient. What, then, is to be expected among persons thus practising a profession, to which the old adage of ‘ars longa, vita brevis’ so admirably applies, when we see not even one didactic page to which they can resort; no public institution where knowledge is either bestowed or received; no liberal, enlightened, patron, under whose auspices genius may be enabled to penetrate into the mines of science? This being the fact, shall we refrain from smiling at those of our countrymen who, quitting the aid and guidance of their well-informed medical friends, resort to such quacks, whose reputation they thus unjustly raise among the gaping crowd, and who have the art to propagate the most unbounded reliance on their nostrums? That, here and there, a simple of peculiar efficacy may be in use among such persons, I shall not deny; but must appeal to our more enlightened medical societies, whether, in the hands of an ignorant man, brought up in vanity, and regardless of the minutiæ of physical causes and of physical effects, even the most simple medicine can be safely entrusted? The greatest part of the burlesque is, that these highly renowned physicians, to a man, rely upon proper conjunctions of the planets, lucky hours, &c., not only for the culling, but for the mixing, and administration of their medicines, without regard to those critical moments of which our silly disciples of Hippocrates and Galen are so very watchful!
We must, however, do the natives the justice to allow, that the refrigerating principle lately adopted by some of our leading physicians, owes its origin solely to the ancient practice of the Brahmans, or Hindu priests; of whom the generality affect to be deeply versed in pharmacy. I believe, that, if taken in time, few fevers would be found to degenerate into typhus, and that very seldom any determination towards the liver from acute cases would occur, were the refrigerating course to be adopted. Often have I known my servants, when attacked with fever, to drink cold water in abundance, and to apply wet cloths to their heads, with great success; the former has generally lowered the pulse considerably, by throwing out a strong perspiration, while the latter has given immediate local relief.
Were it not that cast (i.e. sect) opposes a formidable barrier to the more extensive practice of European physicians among the natives in general, the native doctors would speedily be consigned to their merited contempt: but such are the prejudices arising from religious tenets, among the Hindus in particular, that, even when at the last extremity, many would rather die than suffer any medicine prepared, or perhaps of which the liquid part had been barely touched, by one not of their own cast, to enter their mouths! Where such infatuation prevails, ignorance will maintain her empire, until, by the gradual abolition of vulgar errors, the light of science, and of reason, may begin to glimmer among the people at large. It will not suffice, that a few skilful European professors should be seen, and be admired, by a grateful few: that has already happened; but the dread of religious anathema, and of domestic excommunication, are too forcibly opposed to such weak demonstrations. Unhappily, we aimed at a reform, in this particular, at that very point to which it should have had only a remote tendency: we peremptorily attacked the very existence of full a tenth of the whole population, that is, of the Brahmans, or Hindu priests; and we excited, among the people at large, suspicions such as have given scope to our enemies for inculcating, that we are intent on subjecting their minds, as well as their bodies.