m. a gong summons the patients to the
operating room for a short religious service. Usually about fifty
were present, and a number more, who had some curiosity about 'the
way,' but did not care to be seen at Christian worship, hung about
the doorways. Dr. Marx read a few verses from the Gospels,
explaining them in a homely manner, and concluded with the Lord's
Prayer. Then the out-patients were carefully and gently treated,
leprous limbs were bathed and anointed, the wards were visited at
noon and again at sunset, and in the afternoons operations were
performed with the most careful antiseptic precautions, which are
supposed to be used for the purpose of keeping away evil spirits from
the wounds! The Tibetans, in practice, are very simple in their
applications of medical remedies. Rubbing with butter is their great
panacea. They have a dread of small-pox, and instead of burning its
victims they throw them into their rapid torrents. If an isolated
case occur, the sufferer is carried to a mountain-top, where he is
left to recover or die. If a small-pox epidemic is in the province,
the people of the villages in which it has not yet appeared place
thorns on their bridges and boundaries, to scare away the evil
spirits which are supposed to carry the disease.
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