Page:Pearl of Asia (Child JT, 1892).pdf/330

302 worst type of small-pox, taken from a Siamese Mss. of the highest authority. It contains twenty-eight ingredients, to-wit: "One portion of conch shell; two kinds of aperient fruit, one portion of each; one portion of asafœtida ; one of borax; one of ginger; nine kinds of pepper, including the hottest spices, a portion of each; four kinds of cooling roots, a portion of each; two kinds of sour leaves, one portion of each; one of an astringent root; four kinds of drastic cathartics, including the fruit and leaves of the Croton plant, one portion of each; one of rhubarb, and one portion of Epsom salts. Boil in three measures of water until it be diminished to one measure of the decoction, then squeeze out the oily parts of it, dry and pulverize, A woman may take one salung's weight of it. A child may take a fuang's weight. It will purge off everything in the bowels."

The following are specimens of medical recipes taken from a Siamese Mss. on the treatment of snakebites. The author states it as being an important fact to be taken into consideration in forming a diagnosis, that the bite of a venomous serpent, and indeed any other wound or sore on the left side of a female and right side of a male, are unfavorable to a cure, and that the reverse is favorable; and furthermore, that there is a difference in the curative capabilities of all wounds according to the day of the weeks on which they were inflicted, as there is also in the time of the day — the morning being much more favorable than the evening.

One of the prescriptions comprises nineteen ingredients, among which is a portion of the jaw of a wild hog, and one of a tame hog and one of a goat; a por-