1 XVI 1
2 were well aware of the importance of this study.
3 It often happens, that he who has even but a slight
4 knowledge of medicine, and understands the peculiari-
5 ties of his own constitution, is able, by the timely
6 application of a suitable remedy, entirely to remove,
7 or lessen, any illness with which he may be attacked.
8 English physicians residing in the East, and more
9 especially those in the Punjab, may derive great advan-
10 tage from the Flora Medica Cashmereana. I should
11 recommend them to apply to the Secretary of the Medi-
12 cal Club at Lahore, that he may send them, annually ,
13 a small but fresh supply of herbs, and to use them
14 according to the System I lay down in this work,
15 It would, indeed, be desirable for physicians who
16 intend to establish themselves in any country, to make
17 themselves acquainted with the productions of the
18 locality, and to try the qualities of indigenous plants
19 on healthy as well as on diseased individuals, that
20 they may be able to use them advantageously. Such
21 a course would not only render the physician inde-
22 pendent of the supplies of medicines from foreign
23 countries, and furnish him with remedial agents on the
24 qualities of which he could depend, but he would, at
25 the same time, be rendering a service to mankind, by
26 the occasional discoveries with which he might enrich
27 medical science. It was thus, that I discovered the
28 healing properties of nearly all the plants which are
29 mentioned in my Materia Medica , in the second
30 volume.
31 If this advice were generally acted upon, a consid-
32 erable saving would be ensured to the Government in
33 India, which is now at much expense, in importing
34 VOL. T.
35 c