thetical pathologies of Hippocrates and
his predecessors. These practitioners know the particular vein in
the particular limb or part of the body which has to be selected for
venesection in any particular illness. I have known a young doctor from
England lose at once the confidence which the people might up to that
time have had in his medical knowledge, because in a case of illness
to which he was called he recommended venesection, and the patient's
medical attendant who was to carry out the treatment made the, to him,
very natural inquiry, "From what vein?" The English doctor said: "It
does not matter." Both patient and medical attendant not unnaturally
assumed that he was either a very careless doctor or an ignoramus,
and, in either case, that they had better call in a fresh opinion.

Cataract is a very common complaint in Afghanistan, and from time
immemorial there have been certain hakims, or native practitioners,
who operate on this by means of the old process of couching. These
men usually itinerate about the country from village to village, as
in most cases the old men and the old women who are suffering from
cataract are unable to undertake the journey to a town where one
of these practitioners lives; or it may be that their relations are
not willing to take the trouble for someone whose working days are
apparently over. In some cases no doubt the operation results in good
sight, but in the majority other changes which take place in the eye
as a result of the operation lead before long to total blindness. As,
however, the hakim seldom goes over the same ground again till after
the lapse of several years, his reputation does not lose by these
failures, as it would have done if he were always resident in one
place. The tooth extracting of the village is usually entrusted to the
village blacksmith, who has a ponderous pair of forceps, a foot and
a half to two feet long, hung up in his shop for the purpose. Where
the crown of the tooth is fairly strong and prominent the operation
generally results in a short struggle, and then the removal of the
aching tooth; but if the tooth is very carious, or not prominent enough
for a good grip, the results are often disastrous, even to fracture of
the jaw, and these ultimately come to the mission hospital for repair,
several often turning up in one day.

At one time smallpox was terribly rife in Afghanistan, and even now
no village can be visited without seeing many who are p