Hindu Medicine c7.74

c7.74

An indispensable element of the charm, intended to secure definite effectiveness, is the solemn and explicit statement that the treatment has already operated according to expectation: “I have snatched thee away,” the doctor addresses the patient in concluding his magic work, “. . . from all sickness . . .” (28). The result, however, is stated in an anticipatory way, as an evocation of the desired effect, at the very outset of the procedure (3): “they have made depart from thee . . . thy sin-born Consumption.”