English
When the ani¬ mal has conceived, the inouth(of the matrix)closes so firmly, it will not permit the least thing either to escape or to penetrate; during copulation, it dilates and extends in such a ivay that the sperm has an easy and large passage to the matrix.*' II. FKYSIOLOCrY **‘Anna' (food) supplies the body with *dhatu' (elements) for its up-building and preservation.” Smvuta 1. 14. 11 Food is converted in the alimentary ti*act into *rasa‘ (chyle) by 'antaragni' (internal fire or combustion, that is oxidation). Oxidation takes place by the natural warmth of the ‘pitta' (bile = sanguinary principle) of the body. “As fire in a hearth converts rice and water of a cooking pot into food and foam, so the digestive-fire {pachatijagni) converts the ingested food and drink into chyle and ‘mala' (excreta = feces and urine).” CharakaVl. 15. 6“. The bile-duct being situated above the alimen¬ tary receptacle, digestion is facilitated by the favourable situation as that of the sun and the moon. (The idea being that as cooking easily takes place when the cooking-pot is placed upon the fire and not below it or sideways, so the stomach being situated above the bile-duct, which was regarded as the fire-principle, easy — ■ - - 17 . I ^ II l ^ 18. qq i 4 50 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE digestion was tlie natural consequence). Due to the rich aquatic content of the place, ingested food and drink are easily softened, favouring digestion. Susruta 1, 21. 16.** “Now the question is whether the (digestive) fire is a different thing from ‘pitta’ (the bile) or the bile is the fire ? The answer is that due to its caloric quality, ‘pitta’ acts as fire in its action of cooking (pachana) and oxidation (dahana) and therefore, the bile is called the ‘internal fire’ {oxidase). Susruta 1. 21. 9 “The chyle {rasa) though aquatic, becomes red during its passage through the liver and the spleen. In the radiant heat of the body, the qualified chyle becomes red, and is called the ‘rakta’ (blood).” Susruta 1. 14. 5-6.** 20. ctw fsi^ara', f¥ sfft I —•! 'mqqcqict ^'nic.'dsfvfifh II < ' 21. g fliw ’cuigq'fri in ^ Kinbrsibwliit.iK PHYSIOLOGY 51 “Chyle is transformed into blood, blood into flesh, flesh into fat, fat into bone, bone into marrow and marrow into semen.” Susruta 1. 14. 10."* “Because the chyle is transformed into 'dhMiC (elements or bodily substances), and it constantly circulates in the body, it is called the Vasa’. “This Vasa’ remains in each ^dhatu' 3500 moments (that is, the chyle is formed the same day, but it takes five days for the chyle to be transformed into blood and blood into flesh etc.) and thus in one month it is converted into the semen of man and ‘arttava’ (the rupture of the Graaflan vesicles with the ripeness of the ova, or the menstrual blood which is associated with the occurrence) of woman.” Susrtda 1. 14.11-12"'*. Semen “circulates in evex’y part of the body of all living beings ; as fat in the milk, sugar in the sugar-cane juice, so is the semen {mihra) 22. WT5W’ Tr‘ 1 iii° 23. Kg; HU 52 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE present in the human body.” Susruta III. 4. 20- 21'^ It is not manifest in the children for it is present in a small quantity as the sweet aroma and delicate fragrance of a flower is not per¬ ceived in a young bud before time develops and ripens it, though its presence can not be doubted in an elementary state. Susruta I. 14. “In the living body, there are as many cir¬ culations as are present in the body like the chyle and the blood etc. for in the living body without circulation, they can not be produced or reduced.” Charaka III. 5. 1'®. ‘‘The centre of the vitalizing (pranavaha) cir¬ culation is the heart and the great trunks {malia- srota) of arteries and veins). Charaka III. 5. 3^*. ‘ii. OTJ?) wvu iih<= aj^g frat w ir? 24(a). gqi 1% ^ qq qralqjajqiM, wqrqi+if*)°qfqiRfh qiqqi qt vq 55^ qrrarqitqitlv^qfti' q^fh j qq qtqnqmfq qq;qftqnqTq Hiqulqt wqft i <lq<iiqi<^iqwqKqq qifhsf q5t1% ■^TrqRt- qr% aiq; a^: qjqqHiapj^tqrhiffe^iqfh lua, 25. qraqi; Htqfq^qwTq’q vqrftpi. qqfu- fq%i; 1 *uqr f% gq^ qpqqqi utctt^fwPr#^ qivifW- q^t^ I 26. ?ra mqrqviqt ’slqqt ^ i PHYSIOLOGY 53 “As the fibres of the Avater-lily and lotus stalks are naturally perforated, so in the tubular vessels, there are minute pores in the tubular vessels {clliamant) throuch u'high the ‘ 7 ^cisa' circulates.” Susi'tita IV. 9. 9’, I. Digestion. I’l'om the above quotations, it can be seen that the ancient Hindu school of medicine grasped the essential fundamentals of digestion and circulation, though the intricate and complex process of their mechanism was not and could not be understood by them. Physiological chemistry is of but very recent development and growth. A few years ago, it w^as not even sus¬ pected that the digestion and absorption Avere due to the fermentative action of tlie glandvdar secretions. The digestive ferments or enzymes reduce the ingested food particles by cleavage into their elemental compounds by creating molecular instability through their electi’o- chemical action and in proportion as the food¬ stuffs are altered thus in the alimentary canal and transformed from insoluble into soluble sub¬ stances, from such as are not diffusible into such 27. W AsTlfit 114 64 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE as are easily diffused, and they are absorbed by the epithelium of the gastro-intestinal mucous membrane and are synthetized into chyle during the passage through the restitutive secretion of the cells. The reivction of the enzymic activity upon the ingested food-particles, is the reduction and cleavage into their component elements, which is the same thing as oxidation. The Hindus understood that digestion was con- commitant with oxidation (antaragni), but did not know that the oxidation was caused by the digestive ferments. ‘Rasa’ has been translated as the chyle, for it is the most appropriate available term. But ‘rasa’ is more than chyle. ‘Rasa’ is the whole of the soluble and diffusible solution of the digested food which being partially regenerated and synthetized during its passage through the mucous membrane by the anabolic restitutive secretions of the living cells, either enters into the lymph sinuses of the mucosa, or are absorbed by the solitary and agminated follicles and by the lymph-glands interposed along the lacteals or are taken up by the blood capillaries of the mucous coat, especially in the villi of the small intestine. Whether the ‘rasa’ forced into the lymph torrent is carried along the thoracic duct PHYSIOLOGY 65 which pours its contents (lymph and chyle) into the left subclavian vein or absorbed in the blood capillaries of the villi, travel by the venous portal system, it has to pass through the hepatic cells for further synthetic transformation, before it is driven to the heart for general circulation. The blood is red in color, for it is caused by the mass of red-corpuscles (erythrocytes) held in suspension in the plasma. The blood is composed of a liquid part, the ‘plasma’, in which float a vast number of microscopical bodies, the red corpuscles (erythrocytes), the white corpuscles (leucocytes) and the blood plates or platelets ( hematoblast ). The red corpuscle has the shape of a biconcave disk with bevelled edges with a diameter of 0.0075 millimeter in man and for each cubic millimeter of blood, there are red corpuscles in man from 4 to 5 millions, in goat 9 to 10 millions, in sheep 13 to 14 millions, in birds 1 to 4 millions and in fish quarter million to two millions. The chief function of the red corpuscle is to carry oxygen, which it owes to its principal ingredient—haemoglobin and which possesses the special quality of chemically combining with oxygen and yielding up the same oxygen, whenever there is decrease in the con¬ centration of oxygen in the solvent. In perfor- 56 ANCIENT HINDU MEDICINE inance of this important function, the red cor¬ puscles soon lose their vitality, deteriorate and are disintegrated in the liver. The liver elimi¬ nates the wastes and the pigments as an excretor}’’ product, which thus receives the golden brownish tinge. The bile is essentially the excretory product of the metabolic wastes which are formed in the hepatic cells as a result of their detoxi¬ cating and metabolic activities, but the bile has adapted in the economy of the system, to the functional utility of zymo-exciters, particularly of the lipolytic enzymes. The red corpuscles are newly formed again in the red bone marrow and the spleen, where special cells are provided for their reproduction. But it is probable that the spleen plays a more important role in the inte¬ gration and synthesis of the haemoglobin mole¬ cules, for iron is its important component element, having special chemical affinity for oxygen, and iron is principally metabolized in the spleen. It is therefore a delightful surprise to read in Charaka and Susruta that they attributed to the liver and the spleen of transforming ‘j'asa’ into blood, and heart was the centre and' medium of the blood circulation to irrigate, feed, nourish and sustain tissues and life. Of course it was a fanciful speculation that the blood is trans- PHYSIOLOGY' 57 formed in five days into flesh and in a month into semen. But the blood supplies the nutrient materials for the cellular sustenance, growth and upbuilding.