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A passage for editorial review. AN INTERPRETATION OF ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE J BY CHANDRA CHAKRABERTY PUBLISHED BY • RAMCHANDRA CHAKRABERTY, M.A. ^58, Cornwallis Street, Calcutta 0 t y All rights reserved. 1923 . PRINTED BX Prafulla Kumar Chatterjee AT THE BENGAL PRINTERS LIMITED 66, Maniktala Street^ Oalcutta, TO SRIJUKTA LAKSHMIKANTA CHAKRABERTY THIS BOOK IS APPBCTIONATELT DEDICATED f BY THE SAME AUTHOR 1. Food and Health 2. Principles of Education 3. Dyspepsia and Diabetes 4. A Comparative Hindu Materia Medica 5. A Study in Hindu Social Polity 6. Endocrin Glands 7. National Problems 8. Infant Feeding and Hygiene TO BE HAD OF E. LE FRANCOIS Librarie Medical et Scientifique, 9-10, Rue Casimir-Delavignc, Paris (Vie) LUZAC & Co. 46, Great Russell Street, London W. C. JOSFPH BAER & Co. OTTO HARRASSOWITZ Buchhandlung und Antiquariat, 6, Hocfistrasse, Fr>hkfurt a. M. Buchhandler und Antiquar, Leipzig. THE ORIENTALIA. New York City. V CONTENTS. Chapter Page I. — Anatomy • r • ... 1 (a) Osteology • • • 6 (b) Arthrology * • 17 (c) Myology 20 (d) The Vascular System ... 35 II.— Physiology ... 49 (a) Digestion • • • 53 (b) Circulation • 69 (c) The Nervous System ... 68 III. — Pathology ... 96 (a) Constitutional Pathogenesis 108 (b) Mechanical Pathogenesis 119 (c) Infections 128 IV, — Pisea^es and their Piagnosis V. — Piseases and their Clinical Studies j 142' ^196 (a) Eevers 200 (b) Diarrhoea 229 (c) Diabetes 253 (d) Diseases of the Bladder 270 (e) Diseases of the Mouth 303 (f) Tumors 331 (g) Skin Disease ••• 363 (h) Diseases of the Genital Organs 379 VI. —Therapeutics VII. —Surgery VIII. — 'Dietetics IX. —Hygiene Foreword I started this Book with the idea of making^ it a compai’ative study of the ancient Hindu and Greek systems of Medicine in the light of modern knowledge. But I soon realized that the Hindu students for whom this hook is chiefly intended, would not be interested in the Greek Medicine, and as there are excellent translations of the works of Hippocrates,I live confined myself to the in¬ terpretation of the Ancient Hindu Medicinealonu. I was forced to the conclusion that the Ancient Greek Schools of Medicine were indebted to the Hindu Systems for the following reasons :—(1) Indigenous Indian drtigs are found in the works of jlippocrates as (a) Kardamomon from Sk. ‘ka7'dama’ ( cardamon ) as an emmenagogue in * I. E. Littre : Oevres Complete D’ Hippocrate ( Text and translation ) 10 Vols. J. B. Bailier et Fils, Paris, ISSO-lSGl. I have used this edition for my rf^fe^ence. 2/ Robert Fuchs ; Hippokrates Sammtlicho Werke, 3 Vols. Munchen, 1895-1900. 3. F. Adams : Genuine Works of Hippocrates ( partial), Sydenham Society. ( iv ) Vol. VII. p 358 ; in dyspnea in Vol. VIII. p. 80; (b) Aniomon fi’om Sk. ‘ela* (Elettaria cardamomum ) as an emmenagogue in Voi^. VII. p. 358 ; (c) Feperi from Sk. ‘pippalf ( Piper longum ) as an expectorant, mixed with honey- water in Vol. II. p. 464 ; in nasal catarrh in Vol. V. p. 183 ; in gingivitis in Vol. V. p. 244; as an errhine in Vol. V. p. 328 ; as a drink with honey, vinegar and water in Vol. VI1. p. 150 ; with wine and oil in a pessary in Vol. VII. p. 364 ; in quartai\ fever in Vol. VIII. p. 654 ; Dia-trion piperidon, from Sk. trikatu' a preparation made from three species of ‘Fiper’ (nigrum, longum and album ) ; (d) Kinnamovios from Sk. HvaF (Cinnamomum zeylonacum) with myrrha, and safran in fumigation in Vol. VII. p. 372; simple fumigation in Vol. VIII. p. 364 ; (e) Akoros from Sk. ‘vaoha’ ( Acorus colamus ) with myrrha as antiseptic injection in Vol. VII, p. 368 ; made infusion with dry pomegranate skin in wine for astringent injection in Vol. VIII, p. 860 ; (f) Nardou from Sk. *jatdmams'i'‘ (Nardostachys Valeriana) as antiseptic fupaigation with cinnamon, myrrha and rose perfume in^^ol. VII. p. 372 ; as an astringent antiseptic wasti in lochia in Vol. VIII. p. 104; (g) Sesamoii from Sk. Hila’ ( Sesamum indicum ) as a vulnerary in ( V ) empyema—suppurative abscess in Vol. II. p. 518 in the treatment of adiposis pn Vol. VI. p, 76;. as a pl^jster in long-standing catarrh in Vol. V. p. 432 ; a^ a fattening food in Vol. VI, p. 258.; as a nutritive food in Vol. VI. p. 544; as a substitute for cheese in Vol. VII. p. 78; in coughing of the children in Vol. VIII. 82 ; (h) Ziggiberis from Sk. ^srngaverci^ (Zingiber officinale ) ; Kostos srom Sk. ‘kustha’ ( Costus speciosus) ; Sakcharon from Sk. ^sarkara^ ( Saccharura officinarum ); Pepereos riza from Sk. *pippaVi-muW ( radix Piper longum) ; Kupeiros from Sk. ^mustaka (Cyperus rotundus);’ JBdellion from Sk. ^giiggulcC (Aquilaria agallocha) ; etc. (2) Sumoral Pathology : In ‘Peri Physios Anthropoy' ( On the Nature of Man ) Vol. VI. p. 32-69, Hippocrates advances arguments of supeiiorty of the principles of the four humors whose equilibrium in the body preserves the normal health and whose derangements are the etiological factors of disease, as the ‘aima’ (blood : Sk. 'rudhira ’), ‘plilegma’ ( phlegm : Sk. ‘slesma^f’ ‘choleit xanthen* ( yellow bile : Sk. ‘pitta’ ), and *chdl/n melainam’ ( black bile ; as a substitute for Sk. ‘myu’ ), which he for the first time introduced into Greece over the ancient doctrine ( vi ) of IwV ( from fire) ‘cold’ ( from earth ), ‘dry’ ( from air ) and ‘moist’ ( from water ) qualities which were supposed to be the basic factors of health and disease, and whicli he also argues in his book ‘Peri Archaies letriohes’ ( Ancient Medicine ), Vol. 1. pp. 570-637. In his ‘Peri Gones’ ( Generation, 3 ), Vol. VII. p. 474, ‘aima, chole, udor, phlegma’ are mentioned as the four humors, using ‘bile’ without any qualifica¬ tion, and in the place of one, ‘udor’ ( Sk. = serous fluid) is substituted, thus proving that the humoral question was still in transitional flux, and was not settled or fixed. In ‘Peri Chymon’ ( Humors, 8, 14 ), Vol. V. p, 488, 496, seasonal changes are mentioned to cause the increase and the decrease of the humors, as the increase af the bile in the summer, and thus organisms are predisposed to certain diseases in particular seasons in which their controling humors are predominant, in a very strikingly similar language as described in Siisruta (I. 6) on ‘rtu-charyyd”. In ‘Pery Physios Anthropoy’ (The Nature of Man, 7), Vol. VI. p. 46, it is argued that ‘phlegma’ is dominant in the winter, for the reason that,^inb.n conforms to the laws of nature, and as every¬ thing is cold in the winter, and as phlegma is ( vii ) \ the coldest of all the humors in tactile sensation, it naturally therefore is in excess over ot\er humors ; in the spring, the blood is dominant, as the phlegma is still strong, owing to the plenty of rain and sap in the soil and plant, but it becomes desiccated by the warm sun ; in the summer, the blood is still strong, but the bile is formed by the strong sun, and the phlegma is in the minimum owing to the hot, desiccant sun ; in the autumn the blood is in the minimum, but the black bile is formed in abundance, as the season is dry and the nature tends to cool itself. In ‘Peri Noyson to Tetartoii* (The fourth Book of Maladies, 33), Vol. VII. p. 54-2, it is described how the humors are in excess or in deficiency : “I shall describe now, how the bile, the blood, the 'udrojp^ (serous fl.uid) and the phlegma are in excess or in deficiency ; it is through the food and the drink, in this way : the full stomach is the source of all things ; but when empty, it profits at the cost of the body which it disin¬ tegrates.’Moreover, there are other four sources from which each of the humors can come to the organs; they come to the stomach, and when the stomach is empty, they go to the -organs (superficial), but they come back, when ( viii ) the stomach lias something (ingesta). The source for the blood, is the heart, for the phleg- ma —the brain, for the ‘uclrops’ (serous /ifuid)— the spleen, and for the bile, the part tfiat is in the liver (bile-duct).” And in the same book (34 —38), it is mentioned that as the plant can select its food from the soil it needs, so each humor can get its nourishment from all kinds of food ; but phlegma is particularly increased by the ingestion of cheese, acrid substance, or phlegmatic food or drink ; the bile is increased by bitter food and drink, or bilious substance ; ‘udi'Ojys’ (serous fluid) is increased by the Avater one drinks, and is pumped by the spleen to itself and other parts of the body ; the blood is increased by the bloody food one takes, and Avhich is attracted to all parts of the body, and especially by the heart. As the disease is caused by the excessiim increment of one humor over the rest, its cure lies in bringing out the coction (pachcma) of the said humor, and cause its evacuation and expulsion from the body ; ‘ the crisis of a disease is the turning pointy arhen the coction of the deranged humor begins, ai4^ the coction produces the periods in fever ( Vol.\ I. p. 617 ; Vol. II. p. 635 ; Vol. IV. p. 469 ; Vol. Y. p, 485 ; Vol. VIII. p. 651 ). (3) India is db^ectly mentioned in association ( ix ) with some of the drugs : (a) “Echochchous echlep- santa oson treis indichoy pharmachoy tou ton ophthalmon, o clialeetaipepevi,chai ton stroggyloy, tria tauta leia tribein,c]iai oino palaio cliliero dieis, balanionperi pteron ornitbos titbeuai.cliai odeprosa- gein.