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much pus, or "Puru jahat," or "Luka yang jahat”; (c.) Malignant ulcers will be "Luka" when they start, "Tokak" when the edges are undermined and infiltrated, "Pekong" when large, and "Jahat" when the patient is evidently succumbing to the ulcerative process alone.
- The arbitrary interference of various Hantus, or Spirits, e.g., Klitisan, Tetanus (which occurs as the result of coming into bodily collision with a jungle spirit), etc., which fantastic ideas do not, however, materially affect the actual names of the diseases with which we deal.
The Medical Malay in some matters, however, shows remarkable acumen, for example, when we come to consider the operation of retroversion of the uterus, by external manipulation, for the prevention of fertilisation, one is driven to reflect that some of their methods or devices must be at least worthy of study. Of little known or uninvestigated diseases also, the Malay supplies not a few, amongst which may be reckoned "Kedal" in its various forms and stages, and numerous forms of "Kurap," fever, and "Latah," etc. Their midwifery is "non-meddlesome," and, therefore, fairly good, the chief mistakes occurring during the puerperium in early walking (or even working), with consequent subinvolution of the uterus, in uncleanliness, and in the early feeding arrangements of the child. Some idea of the soundness of the practise of some midwives may be gathered from the reply to a question I once asked an old Bidan. My question was: "What would you do if an arm came down and labour didn't progress?" and the answer: "Pull down both legs and deliver quickly," only differs practically from the Rotunda teaching, in the addition of the "accouchement forcee" as a grand finale.
Of Pathology, Histology, and Anatomy, they know nothing their pathology depending on the Hantu theory; and as no dissections nor P.-M.'s are permitted, the two latter subjects are closed books to them.
