Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

INTRODUCTION.
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 adminis-
tered 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 heal-
ing 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 mathe-
matical precision, be regarded as being unscientific ?
Xlll
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
TJi QCflpt".! nn
laying open the structures of the body
with the lancets, is at all a satisfactory
method. For, is it not a fact that the finest and the