Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary European Accounts c16.21

c16.21

Although I was very early prejudiced in preference of the cool regimen and free admission of air, in the treatment of this disease, yet, on my arrival in Bengall, I thought the practice of the Bramins carried *both* to a bold, rash, and dangerous extreme; but a few years experience gave me full conviction of the propriety of their method; this influenced my practice, and the success was adequate; and I will venture to say, that every gentleman in the profession who did not adopt the same mode, (making a necessary distinction and allowance between the constitutions of the natives and Europeans) have lost many a patient, which might otherwise have been saved; as I could prove in many instances, where I have been called in too late to be of any assistance. But to form a judgment of the propriety of this eastern practice with more precision, it will be best to analyse it, from the period of the enjoined preparation, to the end of the process; as thereby an opportunity presents itself of displaying the principles on which the Bramins act, and by which they justify their singular method of practice.