An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. I: Sutrasthanam — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1907)

Lithotomic Operations : -In these cases, elaborate instructions have been given for making the perineal incision, as well as about the care and general management of the patient after the operation. In a case of Shukrashmari (seminal or spermatic concretion) the formation and existence of which have been verv recentlv discovered bv English pathologists, Sushruta enjoins that the stone, if in the urethra, should be removed with the help of Anyvdsanam and urethral enematas, failing which the penis should be cut open and the concretion extracted with the help of a hook. Kavinij I'mesii Chandra (Jupla in the introduction to his Vaidyaka Shavda-Sindhu remarks, that he and !>, Durgddasa Gupta M. B. translated the Chapters on lithotomic operations and instrumental parturition «f the Susbrufa Samhita for the perusal of Dr Charles, the then Principal of the Medical College, Calcutta.

rNTRODUCTlON. XIX t >

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''Dr. Charles highly praised the pvocess ot clelivt^ry in difficult ca^es and even coijfessed I hat with all his great experience in midwifery and surgery he never hdi} any idea of the like heing found in all the medical \\;orks that came under his observation."

Amputation : — Amputation^ were freely made and medicated wines, were given to the patients as anccsthetics (i). These conclusivelv show thai the surgery of Sushruta does not rest content with the mere bursting or opening of an abscess, and the healing of the incidental wound, but lays down processes for major operations as well. The removal of the cicatrix until it becomes of the same colour with the surrounding skin and the growth of hair thereon are suggestions which we find nowhere else.

Ophthalmic Surgery : — Of the seventy six varieties of ophthalmic diseases. Sushruta holds that fifty-one are surgical OP*-" Tra Tantram Ch. Vlllu The mode of operation which is tV' be performed in each case has been elaborately described in the Samhita, and does not unfavourably compare in most instances with modern methods of ophthalmic surgery. Sushruta was aware of the fact that the angle of veHection is equal to the angle of incidence, and that the same ray which impinges upon the retina serves the double purpose of illumining the eye and the external world, and is in itself converted into the sensation of light.

Midwifery : — It is in the region of practical midwifery that one becomes so much impressed with the greatness of

Sushruta. The different turning, flexing, gliding movements, the application of the forceps in cases of difficult la1:)our and other obstetric operations in\uiving the deslructioJi and mutilation of the child, such as craniotomy, were iirsl systematically described in the Subhiuta Sauihitd lung before fillets and forceps were dreamt of in Europe, and thousands of years before the birth uf Christ. Sushruta, who

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(i) For llie use of .Sanmohinis (an,Teslheiics) for surgical purposes, sec

Hhoia Prabandlia \>v I'.allAla T'andil.

XX » INTKOnUCTION.

advocates Clesarean se^nion iri hopeless cases of obslruclion, lays down that the instrument should be employed only in ♦those cases where the proportion between the child and the maternal passage is so defective that medicated plasters, fumigations, etc.. are not sufficient to effect a natural delivery. His directions regarding the management of the puerperal state, lactation and management of the chijd and the choice of a wet-nurse are substantial!}- the same as are found in modern scientific works of European authors. A feeling of pride and joy moves our heart when we contrast these glorious achievements of our ancestors with the meanness of results which modern Europe has gained in this department of midwifer}-. In those old days perhaps there were no hospitals to huddle patients together in the same room and therebv to create artificiallv septicemic poisons which are now so common and so fatal in lying-in rooms. A ne^-'^' built Iving-in room in an open space abunduntly suf^s-ea J with the rays of the sun and heat of the burning f^ie for each individual case, the recommendation of a fresh bamboo-chip for the section of the cord are suggestions the value of which the west has yet to learn from the east.