An English Translation of the Sushruta Samhita, Vol. II — trans. Kaviraj Kunja Lal Bhishagratna (1911)

a view to render him insensible and, when completely under the influence of the drug, they trephined his skull, removed the malignant portion of the brain, the actual seat of the complaint, closed and stitched up the opening and applied a healing balm to the wound. Then they administered a restoration known as Sanjivani to the patient, who, thereupon, regained consciousness and felt quite at ease. This incident (as narrated by Thakur Saheb of Gondal in his Short History of Aryan Medical Science) goes to prove that the attendant physician of Buddha, is likewise recorded to have practised cranial surgery writh the greatest success. Instances of successful cases of abdominal section are also not rare. Thus it will appear that the ancient Indians knew and successfully practised surgical operations which are regarded now-a-days as the greatest triumphs of modern surgery. The purpose of chloroform in the palmy days of yore was used to be served by Sammohini, but there is hardly a drug known to modern Pharmacopseias, corresponding whith Sanjivani which certainly lessens the chances of deaths that at present sometimes occur under ancesthetics.

Let them, who allege that the Hindu system of the healing Art is unscientific, now pause and reflect ere they make such an unwarranted and irresponsible assertion. How can a system which contains so accurate an account of the unions of bones and ligaments, anastomoses of nerves, veins and arteries, etc , and which assures the world of trie existence of three crores and a half of veins and arteries in the human body giving facts and figures thereof with such mathematical precision, be regarded as being unscientific ?

It is certainly an undeniable fact that one of the colossal achievements of modern Western Medical Science is its

Anatomy; but the point at issue is whether the process of laying open the structures of the body

TJi QCflpt".! nn

with the lancets, is at all a satisfactory method. For, is it not a fact that the finest and the

XIV INTRODUCTION.

minutest arteries of the skin are never disclosed, if the scalpel is used so recklessly to remove the skin all at once and not allowed to go deeper into the muscles to expose the minute branches of blood vessels and nerves that may happe i to lie embedded therein ? But, on the contrary, look at the process promulgated by Susruta for demonstrating practical Anatomy ! Its originality and perfection beats hollow all the known methods, although it was discovered in almost the pre-historic age. The process prescribed by the Hindu system is as follows : — Cover a dead body with Kusa grass and place it at the edge of the water of a rivulet. After three days take it out carefully, and gradually take off the succsesive layers of the epidermis and dermis and of the muscles beneath by gently and lightly rubbing it over with a soft brush. Thus the smallest and the thinnest arteries, which have by this time swelled and obtained a distinct existence are made palpable everywhere even to the minutest.

The process is termed, as we have pointed before, Avagharshana by Susruta. The Western method might be an easier and a more off-hand one, but by no means precise. Though the merit of discovering this mode Avagharshana. ^f dissection is due to Susruta, we are all blind to it and call Hippocrates the father of Medicine ! It is generally believed that with a view to further his researclies and perfect his knowledge, it is Hippocrates who inaugurated the system of dissection of dead human bodies and he did the work secretly. Credulous people may lend a willing ear to such assertions but the fact is, that it was not till a century later that Hirophilus openly resorted to dissection of human bodies and thereby earned an undying fame in Europe, obliterating Susruta's name for ever, though, virtually speaking, he (Susruta) was the pioneer of dissection and figured in the world more than a millenium before the advent of Hippocrates and over eleven centuries prior to the age of Herophilus.

INTRODUCTION. XV