A Concise History of Science in India c8.s8.t3.3

c8.s8.t3.3

The long and rigorous training in theory, medicine and surgery, compulsory in classical times,a gave place to a few years of apprenticeship as compounder-*cum*-assistant. The new entrants to the professions were very little interested except in methods of easy cure and were psychologically inclined to follow the path of least resistance. Actual dissections on cadavers, so necessary for surgical and anatomical knowledge,b had been discontinued for many centuries due to changed ideas of caste purity, and surgery was avoided or relegated to barbers when absolutely unavoidable. Obstetric practice was shunned by the male physicians due to changed ideas of social intercourse and was relegated to untrained and illiterate midwives with horribly insanitary and often highly harmful methods. The teachings of the classical works regarding detailed examination of bodily eliminations and applications of douches, enemas, etc., were conveniently forgotten; for social and caste considerations, as well as prudery, dictated against such methods. The painstaking methods of diagnosis found in *Āyurveda* were replaced by diagnosis on the basis of case history and feeling the patient’s pulse; the equally painstaking methods of treatment often became limited to oral medication. In the latter sphere, the metallic preparations alone were reliable, as the original pharmacognosy of plant drugs had long been forgotten and rubbish offered by traders was often passed on as genuine; for genuine prescriptions were costly to collect, prepare and store. When results were disappointing, the science had to take the blame and people turned more and more to the newly imported Western science of medicine in hope of cure.