The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c15.16

c15.16

It could be claimed that this analogy does not have much interest, as any doctor desirous of enumerating symptoms could be tempted to do so organwise, beginning from the head. But precisely it is already remarkable that on both sides, in the Accadian medical literature and also in the Greek medical literature, similar enumerations have been constituted. The study of medical data put in such a form, does not form part of a method necessary for medical teaching wherever it be given and the instinct of the clinician not influenced by a mode of explanation which had been traditional before him, would make him understand his observations in a more natural manner, just as he may have gathered them; that is to say that he would describe the entire disease either in each particular patient or in a type summing up the common traits of similar morbid developments observed by him. The pre-determined way of listing the signs establishes a good relationship between the Accadian manual and the *Prénotions de Cos*.