The hakims--the physicians of Afghanistan--practise purely as physicians; they do not use the knife surgically, rarely even for bleeding. When they find it necessary to treat an abscess, they apply an irritating ointment which causes ulceration of the skin. Since the introduction of European drugs into Afghanistan some of the hakims have made use of them; but as they do so in ignorance of their therapeutic properties, the results are rarely satisfactory, and, in some cases, are disastrous. They have great faith in the healing properties of a purge, but do not consider it has had any effect unless it acts at least twenty times. The way is prepared by administering every day for a week a large bowl of laxative mixture; afterwards, one or more bowls of a drastic purge are given. Some of the people seem to establish toleration of this class of medicine, and require a large dose before they are acted on; but with a vast number this mode of treatment, combined with the custom of eating largely of ripe and semi-ripe fruit, certainly predisposes them to the obstinate and often fatal bowel affections that are such a scourge in the spring and autumn. These bowel troubles, according to a popular native idea, are caused by drinking tea immediately after having eaten fruit, particularly mulberries. There is no doubt, however, that some of the cases are due to the debilitated and enfeebled state of the digestive organs, produced by the malarial poison, the immediate exciting cause often being the sudden change in temperature experienced when climbing a mountain after a residence in the hot valleys. Other cases are due to the presence of minute intestinal parasites, the ova of these being ingested during the drinking of impure water, a common custom among the careless Afghans. [Sidenote: Treatment of Disease by Hakims.]