SOAP, ANCIENT AND MODERN.

RUSSIAN BUDDHISTS AND THE SO-CALLED TIBETAN MEDICINE.

and must be received by the Secretary of theThomas R. Neilson, on or before May lst, 1907. Dr. College, Each essay must be sent without signature but must be plainly marked with a motto and be accompanied by a sealed envelope having on its outside the motto of the paper and within the name and the address of the author. It is a condition of competition that the successful essay or a copy of it. shall remain in possession of the College ; other essays will be returned upon application within three months after the award.

Sir W. S. Church, Bart., Dr. T. Colcott Fox, Sir W. Tennant Gairdner, Dr. G. E. Herman, Dr. J. Hughlings Jackson, Lord Lister, Professor William Osler, Mr. H. W. Sir Richard Douglas Powell, Bart., Dr. Philip H. Pye-Smith, Mr. John Tweedy, and Professor G. Sims Woodhead, Council: Dr. F. J. Baildon, Sir James Barr, Mr. Lyder Borthen, Dr. J. Rose Bradford, Professor J. W. Byers, Dr. W. Collingridge, Dr. W. S. Colman, Dr. R. H. Coombs, Dr. W. Elder, Dr. William Ewart, Mr. N. Hay Forbes, Dr. Charles Gibson, Dr. S. H. Habershon, Mr. Raymond Johnson, Mr. C. R. B. Keetley, Dr. P. W. Latham, Mr. Jordan Lloyd, Dr. Thomas Oliver, Sir Isambard Owen, Mr. D’Arcy Power, Mr. R. J. Pye-Smith, Dr. Guthrie Rankin, Dr. Ernest S. Reynolds, Dr. F. T. Roberts, Dr. Humphry D. Rolleston, Dr. A. Routh, Dr. R. Saundby, Dr. R. Shingleton Smith, Dr. Ralph Stockman, Dr. T. J. Walker, Mr. Edward Ward, and Dr. E. T. Wilson. Treasurer : Mr. Henry Power. Auditors : Dr. Leonard W. Sedgwick and Mr. Waren Tay. Honorary secretary : Mr. Jonathan Hutchinson. Acting secretary : Dr. A. E.

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RUSSIAN

BUDDHISTS AND THE SO-CALLED TIBETAN MEDICINE.

IN the St. June 17th an

I

Petl’rsbllrger Medicinische Wochenschrift of’ interesting paper under the above title was Leo Bernthenson who prepared his obserDr. published by vations for a special commission of the Russian Government to investigate the practice of Tibetan medicine among the Mongolian inhabitants in the Irkutsk and Transbaikal districts and to promote the supply of medical aid to them. The inhabitants of these districts are largely Buryats and’

Kalmucks and the few Russian medical officials, whoseSOAP, ANCIENT AND MODERN. duties are administrative as well as curative, scattered THE present agitation with regard to the soap question is throughout these large tracts of country are unable to supply bringing to light some interesting facts concerning the manu- the necessary aid, and, moreover, the majority of the people

facture of soap which the public would do well to consider. are Buddhists and therefore under the control tf the Lamas. Already in these columns we have published certain In the course of his paper Dr. Bernthenson gives some inauthorised statements which show that there exist some teresting details of the practice of medicine by the Tibetans. differences of opinion as to what constitutes the best soap. So far as can be determined the origin of the medical knowIt is evident that the view in regard to a standard is by no ledge of the Tibetans is the Indian medicine modified means unanimous. Apai from materials, our chief concern by Buddhistic teachings. The first medical work in the as medical writers is whether the soap offered to the public Tibetan language appeared about the year 685 of theis free from impurities which are likely to harm the Christian era, at the time of Sakya-Muri (the fourth human skin or to destroy the quality of clothing. It seems incarnation of Buddha). This book, known as ’’Schud-Schi,’’ to us that it matters little what the fatty basis is was subsequently modified slightly by a Tibetan physician, so long as that basis is saponified or converted into II., who was born about the year 786 and is Jutog-By pure soap, and that the alkali is completely neutralised said to have lived for 125 years. In this form the work by the fat, whether it be of animal or vegetable origin. served as a text-book of medicine until the end of theEconomical considerations are, of course, also raised by the seventeenth century. At the beginning of the eighteenthquestion of the amount of water in soap. But water can century the Lama practitioners of medicine began to,obviously be a variable quantity in any kind of soap, whether, work among the Buryats, and the Buryat Lamas transthat is to say, it be produced from one fat or another. Advert- lated the handbook " Schud-Schi " into the Mongoling to an annotation under the above heading in our issue last Buryat language. One of these translations with comweek, in which we referred to the view of certain soap-makers mentaries added was made by Sultim-Badmajew, who that the old-fashioned tallow soap was, after all, the best, subsequently went to St. Petersburg. This has been another well-known firm of soap-makers point out that cocoatranslated into Russian by the younger Badmajew. This nut or palm kernel oils are not used merely to make the bar Russian translation affords a wealth of material for the soap hard enough but because of their wonderful efficacy as study of Eastern medicine. The book is found to contain soap-making material and besides they are sweet and entirely many excellent observations and is scientific in the true of vegetable origin and do not easily become rancid. It would sense of the word, which renders it so much the more appear that large manufacturers adopt the very wise pre- surprising that practically no advance has been made since caution of submitting their soaps to the control of a wellthe time of its first appearance 1200 years ago. It containsequipped laboratory so as to insure that the combination of observations on embryology, anatomy, physiology, and fat and alkali is exact. The advantage of the so-called oil pathology. It affords data regarding the diagnosis and, soaps, we are informed, is their ready solubility and hence of diseases. A list of drugs is given, and it istheir rapid detergent power. We still think that it would prognosis found that the followers of the"Schud-Schi " make use of serve greatly in the interests of the public if the question of vegetable origin only. But various measuresof toilet soap containing, at any rate, free alkali could be products are recommended, among them compresses, baths, mascontrolled by some such machinery as that of the Sale of sage, cauterisation, venesection, and other operative pro-Food and Drugs Act. cedures, such as extirpation and amputation. Various instruments are described, such as sounds, catheters, dental ALVARENGA PRIZE OF THE COLLEGE OF apparatus, and instruments for cataract operations, forPHYSICIANS OF PHILADELPHIA. removal of exudates, and for the administration of nutrient THE next award of the Alvarenga prize, being the income enemata. In the anatomical section of the work the for one year of the bequest of the late Stnor Alvarenga and enumeration of the organs plays an important part. The.. amounting to about$180, will be made on July 14th, 1907, body is divided into a series of regions which are joined provided that an essay deemed by the committee of award to together by the skeleton, the muscles, and the nerves. The be worthy of the pIize shall have been offered. Essays number of the bones is given as 360, the number of intended for competition may be upon any subject in the nerves as 900, the number of joints as 270, while medicine but must not have been published. They must be the pores in the skin are given as 11,000,000. The heart is -