1 11
2 sketches of oriental character, and illustrations of Eastern
3 manners, customs, and intrigues ; also, a faithful summary
4 of recent events.
5 The second volume, although a medical work, has not
6 been written for physicians only ; it is apprehensible
7 and may be useful to all readers. To render it the more
8 acceptable to those in the East, in addition to the Flora
9 Medica of Cashmere, with its properties and uses, as also
10 those of many other oriental plants and drugs, I have
11 superadded a Medical Vocabulary, in nine languages.
12 A variety of discoveries, curious experiments, and
13 remarkable incidents, may be found in these volumes,
14 collected during a sojourn of many years — useful, I
15 hope, to both naturalists and historians.
16 During my fifteen years’ residence at Lahore, as well
17 as on my frequent journeys, I embraced every opportu-
18 nity of devoting my attention to the examination of the
19 various medical systems of the day, and to the expe-
20 rimenting on the qualities of numerous medicines,
21 whether known or unknown to practitioners. Freed
22 from every selfish motive, I now ingenuously present
23 to the British public, the results of these researches,
24 which were carried on with unwearied perseverance. I
25 am not under the influence of the mania of system-
26 making ; my object is, simply, to aid the alleviation of
27 the sufferings of humanity and to enrich science, as far
28 as my abilities may permit. I have been guided solely
29 by the proverb, “ Nulla re homo proprius accedit ad
30 Deum , qudm salute hominibus danda i.e. “ Nothing
31 brings man nearer to God, than man’s helping his suffer-
32 ing fellow-creatures.”
33 It is no easy matter to eradicate systems which have