Stylus, 1670

The collection consists of 27 olas—or manuscripts written on palm leaves—from Sri Lanka, which is referred to as Ceylon in the collection materials. The manuscripts are mostly medical in subject matter, and include the following: protective and curative charms, astrological treatises, student notebooks, pharmaceutical formulas for pills, powders, and extracts, and treatises on specialized subjects like ophthalmology, dermatology, treating ulcers, etc. The collection also includes fragments from non-medical olas.

The manuscript titles are derived from handwritten labels accompanying the olas. When possible, the outdated and inappropriate term "witch-doctor" has been replaced with "healer," but original language is maintained in quotations so as not to censor the material.

According to Dr. Danister Perera, a scholar of the indigenous medicine of Sri Lanka, who has studied the olas donated to McGill University by Casey Wood, some of the information on the item labels is misguided. The olas labeled as being in the Pali language are likely be in Sinhala since Pali is associated with Buddhism and religious texts. Additionally, Perera has said that the dates of the McGill olas are unsupported estimates and cannot be confirmed. Instead, he dates the manuscripts to the 18th and 19th centuries, though the content of text is often older.

While Galter's collection is dated to between 1400 and 1770 CE by Casey Wood and Andreas Nell, it is likely that the olas align with Dr. Perera's date estimate.