Doctors in Tibet.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 24 March 1910, Page 4

Doctors in Tibet.

AN EDUCATIONAL PRODIGY

f The ancient priests and savants of Tibet were skilful physicians when almost the whole of Europe was overrun by ignorant savages or semicivilised barbarians. The Russian Government, says an exchange, quoted by the Japan Chronicle, recently received a petition from the Siberian Buddhists, requesting that medical schools should be established among them, in which the ancient Tihetian art of healing should be taught. fn consequence of this strange petition, the Medical Academy of St. Petersburg has been making investigations concerning the claims of the ancient Tibetan' art of healing. A Tibetan handbook of medicine, which was known and used about 1,000 years ago, and even then was regarded as an "ancient" and venerated source of knowledge, was used as material for the investigation.

The doctors of Tibet, so many centuries ago, were not only acquainted with the secrets of the entire human anatomy—how many bones there are in the human body, etc.. the principal nerves—but knew that the skin contained eleven million pores. According to this venerable book "tlie heart is king of all the organs and the support of life." "Sickness is general originated owing to the evil and ignorance of human beings, especially owing to their inability to overcome their passions, which disturb the wealthy nourishing of the human organs. All evil thoughts have a harmful influence on the heart and liver." The physicians of Tibet 1,500 years arjo employed the same means of diagnosing the condition of a sick person as the physicians of the present day-—they felt the patient's pulse and looked at the tongue, etc. Among the "remedies" which they recommended were not only vegetarian diet, baths, and compresses, but also massage and cupping. What is more remarkable is that physicians who did not keep their instruments quite clean were severely punished.