Churrus is never used as an interior remedy. I have made different trials with it, and refer for a further description of its qualities to the second volume of this work.

The general use of churrus consists in mixing it with tobacco, and smoking it in the hooka (water pipe), and the natives sometimes place themselves in a circle around the hooka, each taking a few inhalations, and then passing the tube to another. The inebriating power of churrus manifests itself immediately, but also ceases very speedily. Its immoderate use frequently produces mental derangement.

The Sikhs are forbidden smoking tobacco, and consequently from smoking churrus also, inasmuch as it is always mixed with tobacco. As a compensation for this deprivation they are permitted to use opium and spirituous liquors to any extent, whence the great number of opium-eaters among those people, both males and females, in all classes of society.

The cannabis indica, has a similar appearance to our cannabis sativa, but they are very different in their properties, and it is remarkable that the former loses its effective virtue when transmitted to Europe. It is asserted that even the resinous extract which was prepared at Calcutta, was less energetic at London than in India, If that be the case, I ascribe the circumstance to the difference of the climate, or its conveyance over the sea, having myself experienced that several medicaments, which I had brought with me from those countries, lost their virtue during my six months' voyage down the Ganges and across the ocean. It has yet to be ascertained whether our cannabis sativa would be of the same effective nature in India as in Europe. The apparent difference between those two plants consists only in the size of their seeds, those of the cannabis indica being smaller than those of the European plant.

Opium, as I have already mentioned, is also extensively used in India, and is still more detrimental than the other intoxicating drugs whose preparation and use I have been describing; ample particulars respecting the effects produced by it will

be found in the second volume. The abuse which the inhabitants of India make of this poisonous drug is frequently carried to such an extent that all medical assistance proves vain and futile. As an example, I will mention the case of a lady who poisoned herself by the excessive use of this drug, a short time previously to the annexation of the Punjab. This lady took poppy juice mixed with oil, which is the usual method adopted when they wish to baffle medical assistance. Her motive for committing suicide, was jealousy, her husband. having another wife, whom she believed to enjoy the love of her consort in a higher degree than herself. The magistrate, on hearing of the circumstance, requested me to attend her. An hour had passed since she had taken the opium, and I found her in the full possession of her senses, which she retained up to her last moment. She was sitting on her bed, and related to me calmly what she had done. In order to lose no time, I began to administer some remedies, and ordered her to be conveyed to my hospital. But she was past all remedy, and after having been for twenty-fours in a sitting posture she fell back dead, as if struck by apoplexy; she had previously complained of feeling severe pains in her limbs, and requested her son to pinch them continually.

Those who desire to abstain from the habit of taking opium, or drinking the cold infusion of poppy-heads, are recommended to take a large quince, and having cut away a portion, and made a cavity in the centre, to weigh it, and then to put in the tenth part of its weight of opium; the opening is then to be filled up with the piece of quince; and, enclosed in a paste, it is placed amidst hot embers, and left until the paste has become charred. The quince is then to be taken out, cleaned from its burnt coat, and the remains of the opium thrown away, the effective part of it having been absorbed by the quince. Of this preparation they should take daily the same quantity as they had been accustomed to take of opium. At Bokhara I saw a hakim of Kashgar, who acquired some reputation for his skill in curing opium-cating, which he per

formed in the course of three days. On the first day, he gave one drachm of a powder, probably smilax china, mixed with water; on the second, he ordered four other smaller powders, (probably cortex radicis daturæ stramonii, with sugar) to be taken at intervals of three hours, each of them weighing 10 grains, which produced a stupor. On the third day, he gave a drastic purgative, the principal ingredients of which was semen crotonis tiglii, after which he gave them a decoction of liquorice root ad libitum. On this critical day the patient was allowed no food, and during the three days of that treatment he was carefully watched, lest he should taste brandy or other intoxicating beverages, which would produce injurious consequences to the patient. On the fourth day the patient was set free, and felt no desire to take either spirits or opium, the effect of the cure having been to produce an aversion to them. In Europe also, spirit drinkers are weaned from their bad habits by mixing some spirits with all their provisions, which has the effect of disgusting them with the flavour. In a Persian book, the following remedy for the above-mentioned abuses is recommended, and which professes to have the advantage of effecting the cure in one day; namely, the beforementioned bark of the thorn-apple root, mixed with water; this is administered until it produces intoxication almost to madness; when the patient is in that state, his body is to be rubbed with warm oil, and continued till he falls asleep. In that state he remains generally nine hours. On his awaking he appears like a drunken man, but on continuing to rub the body with oil for about two hours after his awaking, he becomes perfectly cured. His first drink must be milk and water. It is said that the decoction of China root is efficacious in preventing the pain in the muscles which is experienced after abstaining from opium, and in curing those which owe their origin to the immoderate use of it. It would, perhaps, be worth while to try the effect of rubbing the body with warm oil, either with or without the administration of the bark of the thorn-apple, or China-root, &c. in cases of intoxication, or poisoning by opium. The following

experiment by Magendie proves that narcotin may produce different effects, according to the different combinations in which it is administered. One grain of narcotin, dissolved in olive oil, killed a dog in twenty-four hours, but 24 grains, dissolved in acetic acid, were administered to another without any prejudicial effect. In its natural state it is still less energetic, and 129 grains did not do the least harm. From these experiments, it may be conceived how easily medical skill may be baffled by the combination of the drug with oil, as in the case of the lady whose suicide I have already mentioned. I cited a receipt of a Kashgar physician, and another taken from a Persian book, and I could cite a still greater number of similar receipts, which however, are all possessed of some peculiarity or oddity. It is true, that we cannot deny the utility of some, but most of them are of such a nature, that it is scarcely conceivable how the human brain could invent such ridiculous imaginations. The following may serve as an example of Persian wisdom, and I mention it for the benefit of our accoucheurs, who may make use of it if they choose. It is nothing less than a method of replacing an abortion of two months, and of carrying it to maturity. For that purpose they say, the embryo must be wrapped in some raw yellow silk, bestrewed with sugar and semen sisymbrii irionis, and then swallowed by a wife or girl, which will produce the desired result.. It is quite indifferent whether it is swallowed by the mother or any other female, only that when a girl is to undergo this operation she must be of the age of puberty. When the child is born, it will come forth with the silk on its feet! I hope the reader will feel much edified at the recital of this new revelation of medical science; but we must remember that this outrageous operation is described in a dingy manuscript of very ancient date. But what shall we say when, in the year of grace 1850, in the most civilised part of Europe, viz., in the city of Weimar, in Germany, there was a work published which surpasses in its absurdities all the oriental manuscripts with which we are acquainted. The book in question was probably written for the

mere purpose of making money, and bears as its title, "The Wonders of Sympathy and Magnetism, &c., by Gerstenbergk."

In India, where the palm, cocos nucifera, grows, the bakers use the juice of it, which is called toddy, to leaven the dough. At Lahore, where toddy cannot be procured, they employ in place of it a mixture of different spices; and, as the ladies at Lahore would probably like to know what spices they are daily eating in their bread and pastry, I therefore take the liberty of giving them the recipe of my Hindostanee baker. It is true the mixture is composed only of innocent drugs, which are taken in such minute quantities that they can never injure health, and that most of them evaporate during baking. The recipe runs thus :Musk, nutmegs, cloves, mace, cinnamon, saffron, cardamum seeds (lesser), ginger, fennel seeds, root of the betel plant, bind-weed (convolvulus argent.), mild inderjuo seeds, shell of the cuttlefish, sugar of bamboo, gum-tragacanth, mastic, and liquoriceroot; of each, one scruple. Some people take also the kernel of the cotton-seed, or the flowers of euryale ferox (a water plant). These different materials are pounded and mixed together, and kept in a small box. When required for use, a small portion is mixed with pollard, or wheaten flour, and made into a paste with sour milk, in the proportion of one scruple of spices to three ounces of the meal. The paste is then enclosed in a cloth, and in summer the leaven is ready for use on the next day, but in winter not till the third day. To this they add three pounds of flour, and, with water, in which a little salt is dissolved, make it into a hard dough, which they knead on a board for half an hour, and then put some sugar into it. Instead of the latter, I used some sweet potatoes (convolvulus batatas), when they were in season, boiling, peeling, crushing, and mixing them with the dough. These potatoes communicate to the bread an excellent flavour, and keep it for a longer time soft and elastic. The bread is made in loaves of about the third of a pound in weight, and is put to leaven on the leaves of butea frondosa, and afterwards baked. How strange a mixture to replace the toddy, and the office of which is performed in our own country by simple yeast.