religious and intellectual regeneration, of the Laos must include efficient medical work, for in no other way can these superstitions be more immediately affected than by the rational treatment of diseases.
This belief in the supernatural causation of diseases is not confined to those disorders which are of rare occurrence: many forms of disease of every-day occurrence are attributed to spirits. Rheumatism is said to be caused by a "swamp-spirit;" the treatment for it might be said to be more surgical than medical. When a person is afflicted with a swamp-spirit, the doctor takes an axe or a large knife and draws the edge of it along the affected part, without, however, touching it, at the same time advising the spirit to return to its former abode.
Epileptic seizures are supposed to be due to spirits, and the proper treatment is for two or more men to stand upon the thighs and pelvis of the unfortunate sufferer, and so prevent the entrance of the spirit into some of the vital organs. This plan is said to be quite successful, as many patients so treated have recovered.
The absurdities of superstitious belief among the Laos might be multiplied indefinitely: these instances are, however, sufficient. Impressed with a sense of their utter helplessness in dealing with those mysterious agencies which are so hostile to them, they invariably conclude that
