TREATMENT OF THE SICK.
The treatment of the sick among the Laos
ranks as a distinct profession. Although
the Laos doctors may not have classified their
knowledge of diseases in a way that we should
call scientific, and although a white foreigner
might be so unsolicitous of his own bodily welfare
as to prefer the chance of nature to the professional
skill of the whole Laos faculty, still,
their system of medicine is quite an extensive
one and embraces some very abstruse subjects.
The Laos doctors are not required to have a diploma
and do not attend any medical school, nor
do they, as a rule, serve an apprenticeship; they
just take to doctoring naturally. Some of them
are widely known as successful general practitioners;
others gain considerable notoriety in the
treatment of certain diseases and become specialists
of wide reputation. Some three or four medical
books, treating of the mysteries of vital phenomena
and learnedly elucidating the doctrine
of the four elements, enrich Laos literature;
these classic volumes also contain invaluable
