The clothing worn should be clean; soiled garments are likely to produce skin diseases. It is advisable to wear shoes, and an umbrella or a staff should be carried. The wearing of garlands, finery, and jewels increases the vital powers and keeps away evil spirits. The following are good measures to adopt for the preservation of health: an emetic once a week; a laxative once a month; and a bloodletting twice a year. All the measures enumerated above were subject to modification according to changes in the season, the locality, the weather, and various other circumstances. In harmony with the extraordinary fruitfulness of the land the pharmacopoeia of India is very rich. It is a remarkable fact that not one of the numerous drugs mentioned in the official list is of European origin. The great majority of them belong to the vegetable kingdom; Caraka stating that he knew of 500 plants that possessed remedial virtues, while Súsruta placed the number at 760. Then, too, the list contains a goodly number of drugs which belong, some to the animal and others to the mineral kingdom. It appears that the physicians of India began using mineral substances, both externally and internally, at a very early period of their history. Among such substances the following may be mentioned: sulphate of copper, sulphate of iron, sulphate of lead, oxide of lead, sulphur, arsenic, borax, alum, potash, chloride of ammonium, gold, precious stones of different kinds, etc. The people of India were skilled in chemical and pharmaceutical work. The drugs were prepared by them in a great variety of ways--as, for instance, extracts of the juices of plants, infusions, decoctions, electuaries, mixtures, syrups, pills, pastes, powders, suppositories, collyria, salves, etc. Practicing physicians carried with them a sort of portable medicine chest, and they often collected, themselves, the medicinal plants which they required. Súsruta gives instructions as to the spots where certain plants are most likely to be found, and as to the seasons when they should be gathered. Charlatanry and mysticism often played a part in this business. Thus, it was maintained that drugs collected and prepared by persons other than physicians did not produce the desired effects. The fact that cosmetics (especially hair dyes), “elixirs of life,” aphrodisiacs, poisons and antidotes for poisons, occupy the most prominent place in the list of pharmaceutic preparations sold, casts a glaring ray of light, as Neuburger states, on the degree of culture among the people of ancient India.