Page:A Short History of Aryan Medical Science.djvu/134

India, the Indian medicine received a rude shock. For the Mahomedans brought with them their own physicians, called Hakims, who followed in their practice the Ionian (Greek) system of medicine, generally termed "Yunani." Under Imperial patronage the Hakims began to prosper at the expense of the Vaidyas. But even at the Mahomedan Courts the Vaidyas are recorded to have cured many intractable diseases, which had baffled the skill of their foreign rivals. It is evident that during the time of the Mahomedan rule there were introduced into India some new drugs from Arabia, Persia, and Afghanistan. Opium, for instance, appears to be a native of Western Asia. It was first imported into this country from Arabia. Its spread in India is synchronous with the advent of the Mahomedans who had adopted it as a suitable substitute for fermented liquors, which their religion discountenances. Sharngdhara and Vagbhata refer to the medicinal use of this article, which they call "Ahi-phena" or snake-foam, believing it to be inspissated saliva of snakes, probably from the symptoms of opium poison resembling those produced by the venom of snakes. It is used in diarrhoea, chronic dysentery, for allaying pain,