Jacob T. Child

“ Hundreds of these miserable diseased wretches can be seen begging by the wayside for alms in all stages of the dread disease. Some with fingers and toes gone, others with noses and lips off, their blackened gums protruding in the most hideous manner, while many are a mass of hideous ulcers, barely able to crawl into the shade of a tree and point to the cocoanut shell that holds the few coppers tossed to them by the charitable. ”

“ Rheumatism, epilepsy, etc., are caused by the wind blowing upward; colic, pains in the loins, legs, etc., by its blowing downward, It is seldom that a disease runs its course without all of the elements being called into play, water especially, as in eases of dropsy, which is caused by the fire not having sufficient force to dry up the water, as the sun does the mists and fog, and they think that fever and cholera are caused by the invisible mists and vapors that exhale from the ground, miasma. ”

“ Practice of Medicine – Native Doctors.
The Siamese formerly believed that the human system is composed of four elements: water, wind, fire and earth; that disease is simply a disarrangement of these elements; hence if fire from without, the heat of the sun, for instance, enters the body in undue proportion fevers, small-pox, etc., necessarily follows. Each element is claimed by the physicians to have its regular seasons, similar to climatic changes. In the native books that they read they are told that during such a month that wind is prone to prevail and beget disease, another month fire. ”

“ The body is encased in a handsome coffin covered with gilding and elaborately carved, more like an ornamented chest than a coffin, and on it is fastened a beautiful white bantam rooster; over the casket is suspended a pavilion and above it two blue banners and two large blue lanterns with other decorations. As soon as the steamer is reached the casket is placed in the hold with the rooster still on it, and by the time the vessel reaches its destination the doomed bird has also gone out into the unknown with the spirit of the son of the celestial. ”

“ A shadow had just fallen upon the surface of the queen of night, slowly if spread over it until the face of the great luminary was covered, and it hung in the cloudless heavens an orb of roseate hue, its radiance all gone. ”

“ At times the passing of a funeral flotilla is quite a gorgeous pageant; the weird music, loud sounding gongs, the beating of tom toms and shrill notes of the flute, the measured dip of oars and fluttering of Mugs of various colors, fringed with gold and silver, furnish the spectator with a panorama of oriental splendor that remains indellibly photographed on the margent of memory. ”

“ While it is asserted that the disease is not contagious, it would be well if these unfortunates were housed and cared for, as their appearance is horribly repulsive. It is generally supposed that there is a large number in the city that no one sees but their relatives, those at the wats being paupers whose only chance for subsistence is what is given to them. Outside of the lepers there are but few beggars in Siam, only these who are deformed, crippled or otherwise objects of charity, and they are generally found around the temples. ”

“ The theory of the native doctors is that all diseases are produced from an excess or diminution of one or more of the four elements. Wind, lom in Siamese, seems to be the leading element, and in nineteen cases out of twenty a sick person, when questioned, will reply as to what ails him, “pen lom,” it is wind. They believe that it enters the system by inhalation and proceeds to the lead as wind enters into a bellows; without it the blood would not flow, perspiration cease, bile stagnate, bowels inactive and the waste gates of the system remain closed. ”

“ A snuff, a plaster to the temples or a wash for the eyes may calm the wind in the head, while something entirely different, taken internally, will dissipate the storm in that region upward or downward, or through the pores of the skin; wind may also be withdrawn by cuping, poulticing, etc., in fact that health may be restored by medicines which have the power to drive the surplus elements out of the system or to parts of the system that need it. ”

“ The superstitions surrounding childbirth are peculiar and cruel. Those who practice obstetrics are generally old women, a doctor is seldom called in except on rare occasions, and the midwives endeavor to aid natural labor by means of domestic medicines, shampooning, etc, at times doing much serious mischief. The cruelest part of their procedure is immediately after childbirth, causing the mother to lie by a hot fire for a period of from five to thirty days. ”

“ They also believe that spirits, good and evil, produce a multitude of human ills, and the people are in continual dread of them, conscious of the demerit that has accrued to them since the beginning of their existence, hence they perform many acts in the way of propitiating them. They have an idea that medicines have the power to counteract the element deranged and thus restore the body to health. The origin of medicine is claimed to be miraculous and they have nostrums for each and every ailment ”

“ The remains of a Chinese mandarin lies in state about one hundred days, during which time bonzes, or priests, pray for the soul of the departed singers chaunt their native hymns and songs, theatrical performances are held and clowns perform all kinds of antics to drive away the gloom and sorrow of the family, to make them forget their Joss, they also think this pleases the spirit of the dead who is supposed to be hovering around to see what disposition is being made of his earthly casket. ”

“ The native doctors never undertake to do anything for a leper; they say it is useless, and so far science has been unable to cure or alleviate the ravages of this worst of all human ills. It is impossible to tell the number of the lepers in Bangkok, but I have seen at least one hundred at Wat Kok soliciting alms, and to the credit of the Siamese they contribute liberally to these unfortunates whom they think the spirits have persecuted for some misdemeanor committed in another period of their existence. ”

“ A novel sight is frequently witnessed in Bangkok, conveying the remains of a mandarin from his residence to one of the Hong Kong steamers, so that it can be transported to the home of his nativity and buried beside his parents. ”

“ The King always has a number of native physicians in his employ who live in or near the palace. He also has two regular physicians, Drs. Gowan and Haves, the latter an American of the modern school, and he is doing much towards advancing the young men in the hospitals in the study of medicine and surgery, introducing all of tho latest works and medicines. The princes and nobles now call in a foreign physician when they are needed, and several physicians are doing an extensive business in Bangkok and vicinity. ”

“ Giddiness they attribute to a deficiency of wind blowing upward, hence a vacuum in the brain; their mode of treatment is to make the patient eat his fill and then go to sleep. For small-pox and cutaneous eruptions, they use a variety of medicated effusions of a cooling nature. If the disease is from the effects of too much water they will use drastic cathartics, if from a predominance of solids of the earth they will try to render the system more plastic by the use of fluids. ”

“ As their religion makes them fatalists they do not seem to grieve much on account of the death of a relative, but they have nothing undone for the care and sepulcher of the dead; they see that his debts are paid, his family properly cared for and his grave located in a pleasant place where the sunshine can fall upon it and face a running stream of water, or the wide expanse of gulf or ocean, Their tombs or vaults are built in the shape of a horse shoe and present quite a curious appearance, as they are arranged in rows. ”

“ Another prescription is called a general sternutatory to be blown into the nose in cases of a venomous bite or other poisoned wounds. It comprises seventeen ingredients, as wood, bark, nutmeg, camphor, flowers, the bile of four kinds of venomous snakes and of a wild hog. This, it is said, may be used with much utility also by women who cannot lie by the fire after childbirth, and in eases of epilepsy and asthma. ”

“ An American physician, who was conversant with their practice, assured me that in one of their prescriptions they had one hundred and seventy-five ingredients, to be taken in three doses, and they are sure enough doses, as the common way of paying a doctor is by the potful thirty to sixty cents per pot, each holding from two quarts to one gallon, and a dose is as much as a man can swallow at one time, frequently a quart. ”

“ Thus, in the march of progress they have learned to ignore the old custom of employing none but native doctors, since they have witnessed the remarkable cures effected and skillful operations performed by the American and other physicians. The Siamese are very generous to their physicians and frequently after the patient is convalescent he will send presents to him, the most beautiful and fragrant flowers, in the form of chandeliers and baskets, to be suspended in his room. ”

“ Following the above is a direction for an enchantment with a view to call the snake to suck out the poison of the wound which it has inflicted, viz.: Take proof spirits three bottles. Let the doctor officiating repeat the form of the incantation. Then let him drink one of the bottles of spirits and enchant over it. If the snake does not come, let him take a second bottle and proceed in the same way. If on drinking the third bottle, with an enchantment, the snake does not come, the patient must die. ”

“ If it is the first child she is doomed to lie thirty days within four feet of a fire always uncomfortably warm, much of the time hot enough to blister, on a bare board without a mattress or the least thing to soften the hard plank. ”

“ This must continue night and day, at the same time wearing nothing but a thin cotton cloth around her hips to shield her from the fire, and she is forced to keep turning constantly as the heat becomes too much for her to bear, in a climate where a fire is anything but pleasant to a person in good health, let alone an enfeebled woman, and this too in a small room without any chimney to carry off the smoke of the burning wood, so that the eyes of the patient are almost blinded as well as her body half baked. ”

“ As the paper was not paying and the Doctor had to settle the bill, he concluded that running a paper was not a part of his mission, and the Recorder slept the sleep that knows no awakening, not even issuing another number to record its demise. The Siam Monitor then sprung up, but the American consul having come to the conclusion that Bangkok was an unhealthy city for newspaper enterprise the Monitor went out with the mango showers. ”

“ Hitherto when a man was desirous of becoming a doctor he read one or two books or manuscripts on a special subject and practiced in accordance with what he had read. Sometimes he will read a number of books and manuscripts, and witness the practice of an older doctor and then in a year or so branch out as a full-fledged doctor. ”

“ During this time lamps are constantly burning to drive away evil spirits and a feast spread for their entertainment while the priests in attendance and the family are regaled with choice viands and feasted sumptuously. ”

“ Vaccination is very popular with the people, having been introduced into the kingdom by an American missionary in 1840, and now the King has instructed the native doctors to vaccinate the people at his expense. ”

“ Their books say that there is great choice to be had between the different days of the week on which a child shall be born — Wednesdays and Thursdays being regarded as more favorable than any other day for the development of vigorous constitutions and bright intellects. Children born on Sundays are thought to be peculiarly liable to be careless and reckless all their days. ”

“ The fire-place is a box about four feet long by three wide, from eight to ten inches deep, filled with clay, on the top of which the wood is piled and kept burning for the time required. The bench on which the woman lies is of the same height and is brought into immediate contact with it. ”

“ The native books on midwifery make an earnest business of teaching parents how they may know whence their new-born infants have come, and soberly state certain signs by which they may know whether their expected child is to be a son or daughter. ”

“ There are a thousand other superstitious observances connected with this subject, which tend greatly to enslave and dwarf the mind of the mother. Happy should all other mothers be that they have not been brought up under such chains of ignorance and consequent misery. ”

“ No doctor will ever undertake a case if this rite is overlooked. The kaya is the ticals, for the cost of the medicine, be the same little or much, but he can't claim it until the patient is restored to health. ”

“ It is well that the Siamese are inveterate bathers, otherwise the way that they live in filthy huts disease should run riot among them, the walls and floors of theirvooms being stained with betel saliva and other filth. ”

“ In the interior the old method still prevails and the native practitioner doses the unfortunate, who may be in his power, with the vilest of decoctions, as there is not a weed or shrub that grows that they do not put to some use. ”

“ A collection of Siamese novels, histories and other works would form quite a library, especially their religious works. They are not far enough advanced to appreciate newspapers, caring but little for the news of the outside world. ”

“ The Siamese are great readers, but it is the most trashy stuff, strictly oriental and frequently of the most obscene nature, the native novels abounding in the filthiest stories told in the grossest manner ”