An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

;412 TIBET.quicksilver with honey, gave them an opportunity of seeing itdone,and had the satisfaction of finding itsuccessfully used by themselves,before we leftthe country.This happy climate presents us with but little variety in their diseases.Coughs, colds, and rheumatism, are more frequent here than- in Bengal. Fevers generally arise here from a temporary cause, areeasily removed, and seldom prove fatal. The liver disease is occasionallyto be met with, and complaints in the bowels, are not unfre-, quent; but the grossness of their food, and uncleanliness of theirpersons, would, in any other climate, be the source of constant diseaseand sickness.They are ignorant (as we were not many years ago) ofthe proper method of treating diseases of the liver, and other viscerathis is, I believe, the cause of the most obstinate and fatal disease tobe met with in the country; I mean, the dropsy. As the Rajah hadever been desirous of my aid and advice, and had directed his doctorsto attend to my private instructions and practice, I endeavoured tointroduce a more judicious method of treating those diseases, by mercurialpreparations. I had an opportunity of proving the advantage ofthis plan, to their conviction, in several instances, and of seeing theminitiated inthe practice.The Rajah favoured me with above seventy specimens of the medicinesin use with them.They have many sorts of stones and petrifactions,saponaceous to the touch, which are employed as an externalapplication, in swellings and pains of the joints. They often removesuch complaints, and violent head-achs, by fumigating the part affected,with aromatic plants and flowers. They do not seek for any otheir