The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c14.58

c14.58

The presence of Indian data in the *Hippocratic Collection*, consciously received as such proves that at least indirect communication of Greek and Indian medical sciences had been realised during the elaboration of certain elements of this *Collection*. These communications must have commenced before the time of Alexander, to which the basis of the large part of these texts is anterior. However, in view of the state of extreme uncertainty of Hippocratic chronology, it will be imprudent to peremptorily affirm that the passages noted by us as referring to Indian remedies have not been written much later. It remains true, nevertheless, that the certainty of Indian influence on the texts *On Woman’s Diseases* and *On the Nature of Woman* brings in the possibility of a similar influence on the other texts such as the one *On Breaths* and that what is said of the Indian medicine *péperi* leads one to think that it has been known to the Greeks through the Persians and therefore this knowledge did not have the need to wait for the expedition of Alexander.