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TREATMENT OF THE SICK.

The treatment of the sick among the Laos ranks as a distinct profession. Although the Laos doctors may not have classified their knowledge of diseases in a way that we should call scientific, and although a white foreigner might be so unsolicitous of his own bodily welfare as to prefer the chance of nature to the professional skill of the whole Laos faculty, still, their system of medicine is quite an extensive one and embraces some very abstruse subjects. The Laos doctors are not required to have a diploma and do not attend any medical school, nor do they, as a rule, serve an apprenticeship; they just take to doctoring naturally. Some of them are widely known as successful general practitioners; others gain considerable notoriety in the treatment of certain diseases and become specialists of wide reputation. Some three or four medical books, treating of the mysteries of vital phenomena and learnedly elucidating the doctrine of the four elements, enrich Laos literature; these classic volumes also contain invaluable