A History of Sanskrit Literature c34.s5.1

c34.s5.1

The striking similarity in many points between the Greek and the Indian medical systems¹ has long been well known. We find in both such things as the doctrine of humours, whose derangement explains disease, the three stages of fever and other disorders which correspond to the Greek triad of ἀπεψία, πέψις, and κρίσις; the division of means of healing into hot and cold, or dry and oily; the healing of diseases by remedies of opposing character; the insistence in the manner of Hippokrates on prognosis; the oath exacted from doctors and the rules of etiquette and professional conduct declared to be incumbent on healers. There are also many detailed correspondences; both systems emphasize the influence of the seasons on health, and contrary to Indian feeling we have in some cases insistence on the use of strong drink as a remedy. Quotidian, tertian, and quartan fevers are noted, consumption is prominently dealt with, while little account comparatively is taken of affections of the heart. There are also similarities in regard to embryology; the doctrine of the simultaneous development of the members is held, the connexion of the male sex with the right side is noted, and a like cause is given for the production of twins; the viability of an eighth-month foetus is asserted, that of a seventh-month is denied; there is similarity in regard to the removal of a dead foetus. In surgery there is similarity in the operation for stone, in modes of dealing with haemorrhoids, in blood-letting, in the use of leeches, including according to Suçruta² those from Greece, cauteries, many surgical instruments, and the use of the left hand to deal with the right eye in ophthalmology. It must, however, be confessed that it is very difficult to determine how much is due to Greek influence and how much is merely parallel development. The doctrine of the three humours, which at first sight might be held to be definitely Greek, is in close connexion with the Sāṁkhya system of the three Guṇas or constituents; moreover, one of the humours, wind, is already known in the *Atharvaveda*, and the *Kauçika Sūtra*¹ is alleged by the comment, perhaps with justification, to have recognized the doctrine of three, wind, bile, and phlegm.