fully used by themselves before we left the country. This happy climate prefents us with but little variety in their difcafes. Coughs, colds, and rheumatifm, are more frequent here than in Bengal. Fevers generally arife here from a temporary caufe, are eafily removed, and feldom prove fatal. The liver disease is occafionally to be met with, and complaints in the bowels are not unfrequent; but the groffnefs of their food, and uncleanliness of their perfons, would in any other climate be the fource of conftant difeafe and ficknefs. They are ignorant (as we were not many years ago) of the proper method of treating difeafes of the liver and other vifcera; this is, I believe, the cause of the most obftinate and fatal disease to be met with in the country, I mean the dropfy. As the Rajah had ever been defirous of my aid and advice, and had directed his doctors to attend to my private inftructions and practice, I endeavoured to introduce a more judicious method of treating those diseases by mercurial preparations. I had an opportunity of proving the advantage of this plan to their conviction in feveral inftances, and of feeing them initiated in the practice. The Rajah favoured me with above feventy fpecimens of the medicines in ufe with them. They have many forts of ftones and petrifactions faponaceous to the touch, which are employed as an external application in fwellings and pains of the joints. They often remove fuch complaints, and violent head-achs, by fumigating the part affected with aromatic plants and flowers. They do not feek for any other means of information respecting the ftate of a patient than that of feeling the pulse; and they confidently fay, that the feat of pain and difeafe is eafily to be discovered, not fo much from the frequency of the pulfe as its vibra tory motion. They feel the pulle at the wrist with their three forefingers, first of the right, and then of the left hand; after preffing more or lefs on the artery, and occafionally removing one or two of the fingers, they determine what the difeafe is. They do not eat any thing the day on which they take phyfic, but endeavour to make up the lofs afterwards by eating more freely than. before, and using such medicines as they think will occafion costivenefs. The many fimples in ufe with them are from the vegetable kingdom, collected chiefly in Boutan. They are in general inoffenfive and very mild in their operation. Carminatives and aromatics are given in coughs, colds, and affections of the breaft. The centaury, coriander, carraway, and cinnamon, are of this fort. This laft is with them the bark of the root of that species of Laurus formerly mentioned as a native of this country. The bark from the root is in this plant the only part which partakes of the cinnamon tafte; and I doubt very much if it could be diftinguished by the beft judges from what we call the true cinnamon. The bark, leaves, berries, and stalks of many fhrubs and trees, are in ufe with them, all in decoction. Some have much of the aftringent bitter taste of our most valuable medicines, and are generally employed here with the fame view, to ftrengthen the powers of digeftion, and mend the general habit. Their principal purgative medicines are brought by the Chinese to Laffa. They had not any medicine that operated as a vomit, till I gave the Rajah fome ipecacuanha, who made the first experiment with it on himself. In bleeding, they have a great opinion of the drawing blood from a particular part. For head-achs they bleed in the neck; for pains in the arm and fhoulder, in the cephalic vein. ; and and of the breaft or fide, in the median; and if in the belly, they bleed in the bafilic vein. They think pains of the lower extremity are beft removed by bleeding in the ancle. They have a great prejudice against bleeding in cold weather; nor is any urgency or violent fymptom thought at that time a fufficient reafon for doing it. They have their lucky and unlucky days for operating or taking any medicine, but I have known them get the better of this prejudice, and be prevailed on. Cupping is much practifed by them: a horn, about the fize of a cupping glafs, is applied to the part, and by a small aperture at the other end they extract the air with their mouth. The part is afterwards fcarified with a lancet. This is often done on the back; and in pain and fwelling of the knee it is held as a fovereign remedy. I have often admired their dexterity in operating with bad inftruments. Mr Hamilton gave them fome lancets, and they have fince endeavoured, with fome fuccefs, to make them of that form. They were very thankful for the few I could fpare them. In fevers they ufe the Kuthullega nut, well known in Bengal as an efficacious medicine. They endeavour to cure the dropfy by external applications, and giving a compounded medicine of above thirty different ingredients: they feldom or never fucceed in effecting a cure of this difeafe. I explained to the Rajah the operation of tapping, and fhewed him the inftrument with which it was done. He very earnestly expreffed a defire that I fhould perform the operation, and wished much for a proper fubject; fuch a one did not occur while I remained, and perhaps it was as well both for the Rajah's patients and my own credit; for after having feen it once done, he would not have hefitated about a re petition of the operation. Gravelisb complaints, and the ftone in the bladder, are, I believe, diseases unknown here. The fmall-pox, when it appears among them, is a difeafe that ftrikes them with too much terror and confternation to admit of their treating it properly. Their attention is not employed in faving the lives of the infected, but in preferving themfelves from the difeafe. All communication with the infested is ftri&ly forbidden, even at the risk of their being starved, and the house or village is afterwards erafed. A promifcuous and free intercourse with their neighbours not being allowed, the difeafe is very feldom to be met with, and its progrefs always checked by the vigilance and terror of the natives. Few in the country have had the difeafe. Inoculation, if ever introduced, must be very general to prevent the devastation that would be made by the infection in the natural way; and where there could not be any choice in the fubject fit to receive the disease, many muft fall a facrifice to it. The prefent Rajah of Thibet was inoculated, with fome of his followers, when in China with the late Tifhoo Lama. The hot bath is used in many diforders, particularly in complaints of the bowels and cutaneous eruptions. The hot wells of Thibet are reforted 'to by thoufands. In Boutan they subflitute water warmed by hot stones thrown into it. In Thibet the natives are more fubject to fore eyes and blindness than in Boutan. The high winds, fandy foil, and glare from the reflection of the fun, both from the fnow and fand, account for this. I have dwelt long on this fubject, because I think the knowledge and obfervations of these people on the difeafes of their country, with their medical practice, keep pace with a refinement and ftate of civilization, which ftruck me with wonder, and no doubt will give rife to much curious fpeculation, when known to be the manners of a people holding fo little intercourfe with what we term civilized nations. Dec. 1. Left Tifhoolumboo, and found the cold increase every day as we advanced to the fouthward, moft of the running waters frozen, and the pools covered with ice ftrong enough to carry. Our thermometer having uly the fcale as low as 16°, we could not precifely determine the degree of cold, the quickfilver being under that every morning. The froit is certainly never fo intenfe in Great Britain. On our return to the lakes the 14th, we found them deferted by the water fowl, and were informed that they had been one folid piece of ice fince the 10th of November. Here we refumed our amufement of frating, to the great aftonishment of the natives and Bengal fervants. On the 17th we re-entered Boutan, and in fix days more arrived at Punukha by Paraghon. No fnow or froft to be met with in Boutan, except towards the tops of their higheft mountains; the thermometer rifing to 36 in the morning, and 489 at noon. Took leave of the Debe Rajah, and on the 12th arrived at Buxadu ar. Calcutta, Feb. 17, 1784. As Lac is the produce of, and a ftaple article of commerce in Affam, a country bordering on and much connected with Thibet, fome account of it may not be an improper fupplement to the above remarks. Lac is, ftrictly speaking, neither a gummy nor refinous fubftance, tho' it has fome properties in common to both. Gums are foluble in water, and refins in fpirits; lac admits of a very difficult union with either, without the mediation of fome other agent. Lac is known in Europe by the different appellations of stick lac, feed lac, and fhell lac. The first is the lac in pretty confiderable lumps, with much of the woody parts of the branches on which it is formed adhering to it. Seed lac is only the ftick lac broke into fmall pieces, garbled, and appearing in a granulated form. Shell lac is the purified lac, by a very fimple procefs to be mentioned afterward. Many vague and unauthenticated reports concerning lac have reached the public; and though amongst the multiplicity of accounts the true hiftory of this fubftance has been nearly hit on, little credit is given in Europe to any defcription of it hitherto publifhed. My obfervations, as far as they go, are the refult of what I have feen, from the lac on the tree, the progrefs of the infect now in my cuftody, and the information of a gentleman refiding at Goalpara on the borders of Affam, who is perfectly verfant in the method of breeding the infect, inviting it to the tree, collecting the lac from the branches, and forming it into fhell lac, in which state much of it is received from Affam, and exported to Europe for various, great and ufeful purpofes. The tree on which this fly moft commonly generates is known in Bengal by the name of the Biher tree, and is a fpecies of the Rhamnus. The fly is nourished by the tree, and there depofits its eggs, which nature has provided it with the means of defending from external injury by a collection of this lac, evidently ferving the twofold purpose of a nidus and covering to the ovum and infect in its firft ftage, and food for the maggot in its more advanced ftate. The lac is formed into complete cells, finished with as much regularity and art asa honey-comb, but differently arranged. The flies are invited to depofit their eggs on the branches of the tree tree, by befmearing them with fome of the fresh lac fteeped in water, which attracts the fly, and gives a better and larger crop. The lac is collected twice a-year, in the months of February and Auguft. I have examined the egg of the fly with a very good microfcope; it is of a very pure red, perfectly tranfparent, except in the centre, where there were evident marks of the em-, bryo forming, and opaque remifications paffing off from the body of it. The egg is perfectly oval, and about the fize of an ant's egg. The maggot is about the one-eighth of an inch long, formed of many rings (ten or twelve) with a fmall red head; when feen with a microfcope, the parts of the head were eafily diftinguished, with fix fmall fpecks on the breaft, fomewhat projecting, which feemed to be the incipient formation of the feet. This maggot is now in my cuftody, in the form of a nymph or cryfalis, its annular coat forming a strong covering, from which it should iffue forth a fly. I have never feen the fly, and cannot therefore describe it more fully, or determine its genus and fpe I am promifed a drawing of the infect in its different ftages, and fhall be able foon to add to a botanical defcription of the plant a drawing of the branch, with the different parts of fructification and lac on it. The gentleman to whom I owe part of my information terms the lac the excrement of the infect. On a more minute investigation, however, we may not find it more fo than the wax or honey of the bee, or filk of the filk-worm. Nature has provided most infects with the means of fecreting a fubftance which generally anfwers the twofold purpofe of defending the embryo, and fupplying nourishment to the infect from the time of its animation till able to wander abroad in queft of food. The VOL. X. No. 55. E fresh lac contains within its cells a liquid, fweetish to the tafte, and of a fine red colour, mifcible in water. The natives of Afam ufe it as a dye, and cotton dipped in this liquid makes afterwards a very good red ink. 1 IS The fimple operation of purifying lac is practifed as follows. broken into fmall pieces, and picked from the branches and iticks, when it is put into a fort of canvas Dag of about four feet long, and not above fix inches in circumference. Two of thefe bags are in conftant ufe, and each of them held by two men. The bag is placed over a fire, and frequently turned till the lac is liquid enough to pafs through its pores, when it is taken off the fire, and fqueezed by two men in different directions, dragging it along the convex part of a plantain-tree prepared for the purpofe; while this is doing, the other bag is heating, to be treated in the fame way. The mucilaginous and smooth furface of the plantain-tree feems peculiarly well adapted for preventing the adhefion of the heated lac, and giving it the form which enhances its value fo much. The degree of preffure on the plantain-tree regulates the thickness of the fhell, and the quality of the bag determines its finenels and tranfparency. They have learned of late, that the lac which is thicker in the fhell than it ufed to be, is most prized in Europe. Affam furnishes us with the greatest quantity of lac in ufe, and it may not be generally known, that the tree on which they produce the best and largest quantity of lac is not uncommon in Bengal, and might be employed in propagating the fly, and cultivating the lac, to great advantage. The fmall quantity of lac collected in thefe provinces affords a precarious and uncertain crop, becanfe not attended to. Some attention at particular feafons is ne ceflar ceffary to invite the fly to the tree; and collecting the whole of the lac with too great an avidity, where the infest is not very generally to be met with, may annihilate the breed. The best method of cultivating the tree, and preferving the infect, being properly understood in Bergal, would fecure to the Cofs poffeffions the benefit arifing from the fale of a lucrative article, in great demand and of extenfive ufe. Extracts from Obfervations and Reflections made in the course of a Journey thro' France, Italy, and Germany, by Hyfter Lynch Piozzi.' W E have at length paffed the Alps, and are fafely arrived at this lovely little city [Turin] whence I look back on the majestic boundaries of Italy, with amazement at his courage who first profaned them: furely the immediate fenfation conveyed to the mind by the fight of fuch tremendous appearances muft be in every traveller the fame, a fenfation of fulness never experienced before, a fatisfaction that there is fomething great to be seen on earth, fome object capable of contenting even fancy. Who he was who first of all people pervaded these fortifications, raised by nature for the defence of her European Paradife, is not afcertained; but the great duke of Savoy has wifely left his name engraved on a monument upon the first confiderable afcent from Pont Bonvoifin, as being author of a beautiful road cut through the solid stone for a great length of way, and having by this means encouraged others to affift in facilitating a paffage fo truly defirable, till one of the great wonders now to be observed among the Alps, is the ease with which even a delicate traveller may cross them. In these profpects, colouring is carried to its utmost point of perfection, particularly at the time I found it, variegated with golden touches of autumnaltints; immenfe cafcades meantime bursting from naked mountains on the one fide; cultivated fields, rich with vineyards, on the other, and tufted with elegant shrubs that invite one to pluck and carry them away to where they would be treated with much more refpect. Little towns sticking in the clefts, where one would imagine it was impoffible to clamber; light clouds often failing under the feet of the high-perched inhabitants, while the found of a deep and rapid, though narrow river, dashing with violence among the infolently impending rocks at the bottom, and bells in thickly-fcattered fpires calling the quiet Savoyards to church upon the steep fides of every hillfill one's mind with fuch mutable, fuch various ideas, as no other place can ever poffibly afford. I had the fatisfaction of feeing a chamois at a distance, and spoke with a fellow who had killed five hungry bears that made depredation on his pastures: we looked on him with reverence as a monster-tamer of antiquity, Hercules or Cadmus ; he had the skin of a beast wrapt round his middle, which confirmed the fancy— but our fervants, who borrowed from no fictitious records the few ideas that adorned their talk, told us he reminded them of John the Baptift. I had fcarce recovered the fhock of this too fublime comparison, when we approached his cottage, and found the felons nailed against the wall, like foxes heads or fpread kites in England. Here are many goats, but neither white nor large, like those which browze upon the fteeps of Snowdon, |