S.E. Asia.—The books iii use in Asia amongst the Buddhist religionists, the Hindus, the Chinese, and the Muliammadans, are all of ancient date. The Burmese obtained from India their theory of medical science, and most of the medical writings in the hands of their practitioners are translations from the Sanskrit into the Pali, Burmese, or Shan languages. The principal of them are the Ayur Veda by king Dhanwantari of Benares, of which an epitome has been framed called after that sovereign, who seems to have lived upwards of a thousand years before the Christian era. They have also Sasruta's book, called after its author, whose era was seemingly between the 9th and 5th centuries before Christ. The Drebyaguna Pndar tha, a translation from the Sanskrit, purports to give a philosophical account of the physical, natural, medicinal, and dietetic uses of the different objects in nature. Nidana, still in San skrit, is the title of their works on posology ; and the I'sara and Lekshyana (Deeps) are their standard works on the theory and practice of medicine.
Burma.—There are no medical schools in Native Burma. The .majority of the students are trained as private pupils or disciples by the older and more experienced physicians, who teach, feed, and clothe them, receiving in return only respect and obedience. A few of the future physicians are taught the elements of their art in the ky-oung or monasteries of the Il'poongyees. There are three classes of physicians,--the Bein-dau-Saya (Bein dan, medicine, and Says, teacher), the Dat-Says (Dat, element), and the Payog,a-Saya or Seh-Gzan (Seh, a form of medicine, and Garin, harsh or rough). The Bein-dan are the most numerous class, and in their practice rely entirely on the exhibition of drugs obtained from the vegetable or mineral kingdoms. They have adopted the theory of the five elements,—earth, water, fire, air, and ether. Amongst the Burmese, the surgeon, even in the oldest and lowest acceptation of the title, does not exist, and there is not the faintest knowledge of anatomy amongst those who in any way practise the healing art. They use no knife or instrument of any kind ; all congenital and acquired deformities are left to nature, and even abscesses are never opened. They enforce a rigid abstention from all animal food during sickness and convalescence ; and the foreign Chinese, Moghuls, and Armenians living amongst them have all adopted this injurious practice. The after-treatment of their parturient women is bar barous in the extreme. As if the hot, humid climate' of that region is not more than enough to depress the woman, immediately after delivery, for the space of nine days, the room she occupies is fumigated with heated bricks placed in water, charcoal fires are kept constantly burning, she is made to sit on warm bricks, and her body is smeared with turmeric and saffron water. The
Siamese also follow this exhausting practice.
The Dat-Saya are less numerous than the Bein dau-Saya, and, like the latter, hold to the ele mental theory ; they are more frequently called in to prescribe in the advanced stages of disease, when the patients arc too weak to bear the effects of drugs, or when the Bein-dau-Saya give up all hopes of the patient's recovery.
The Payoga-Saya are sorcerers or witch doctors, who resort to charms and incantations.
In Chinese philosophy, also, the five elements or factors enter into the composition of all things, and this theory guides their medical men. The old medical writers of China were the naturalists of their times, and that country had a long line of imperial, princely, and magisterial observers, who directed their attention to medical matters,—the I ancient Shin-nung, Hwang-ti, Chi-peh, Lupien, Li-tang-chi, Hwa-to, Wang-shuh, and Li-shi-chin. The good sense of Li-shi-chin to a great extent purged the pages of his cyclopedia, the Pen than, of nonsensical or disgusting things ; but in the present day, as a rule, Chinese doctors in em ploy few mineral or metallic substances n the treatment of internal diseases ; and to instruct all of them in the rational uses of mercurial and ferruginous preparations, would be to confer on their country a great boon. The first edition of the Pen-ts'-au-kang-muh was published by the emperor Wan-leh about A.D. 1597, and the last regular reprint appeared in A.D. 1826, the sixth year of the reign of the emperor Thu-fang. In 1884, Surgeon-General C. A. Gordon added largely to our knowledge of Chinese medicine.
Ceylon. — The medical books of the native practitioners of Ceylon are mostly in Sanskrit or in Pali, but written in the Singhalese character, and some of them have been translated into Singhalese. They are in verses and stanzas, and may be arranged in five classes, according to their subjects, viz. :— On medicinal plants Wasudeva Negundo, Negundo, 290 v. Saswati SI 336 „ I Sara „ 112 at.
On the nature and symptoms of diseases, and on the anatomy of the human body Arishta Sataka, . 100 st.I Sariru shana, ? Sutras Madhaiva Nidana, 1375 v. thane, ? Rupa Lakshana, ? On the qualities and properties of medicinal plants, drugs, etc.— Guna-patha, 700 stanzas. I Siddhanshudda Negundo, 331 verses.