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VII.] sublimate), Shankhavisha (arsenious acid), and several other metallic preparations.

The metals have been recognised as remedies by the Hindoos from prehistoric times. Vegetable drugs are universally used as therapeutic agents. But it is to be remembered that preparations of vegetable substances do not keep well. The ancient Aryans seem to have ascertained by practical experience that vegetable drugs, as a general rule, become inert after a year; powders preserve their strength for two months, pills and tinctures for a year, and oleaginous preparations sixteen months. Under the circumstances, the Aryans have, it is alleged, discovered retentive and lasting medicines, which, far from becoming weakened in effect under the influence of time, increase in strength in proportion to their age. They have described the method of transferring the properties of vegetable cures to certain metals, which intensify their efficacy, and retain it a long time. The metals are subjected to various processes of purification, oxidation, etc., before they can be administered as medicines for various diseases. These Compounds or Bhasmas, as they are called, are supposed to be infinitely more effective than the vegetable drugs, and are always