The Materia Medica of the Hindus, compiled from Sanskrit Medical Works c3.5

c3.5

In the selection of the prescriptions for illustrating the uses of medicines in individual diseases I have, as a rule, given preference to such recipes as are commonly used by native physicians. Where there are several well-known medicines of similar composition and use, I have described in detail only one, and given under it the names of the others with a brief allusion to their composition. My main object in including the names of the principal or generally known preparations of the Hindu Materia Medica in the text and index, is to enable the practitioner of European Medicine to get an idea of their nature and composition when he comes to hear of their having been used by patients who had been under native treatment before coming under his care, as is very often the case. The list is by no means an exhaustive one, nevertheless I have, at the risk of being tedious, endeavoured to include under some head or other most of the combinations which were pointed out to me by experienced native physicians, as generally used in practice.