The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c15.6

c15.6

But before presenting us with analogies with these two medical systems, the Mesopotamian shows up a striking difference. Whereas the former are characterised by an effort at constructing rational theories aiming at an explanation of physiological and pathological states, the Mesopotamian does not show itself under a theoretical form.. It does not, however, follow that it had never known any theory. The absence of theories in documents that have reached us could have been due to the extreme rarity of doctrinal works. Everywhere and in all the periods, the practical medical literature, the collections of usual data for diagnosis, prognostics and treatment are much more numerous and more widespread than dogmatic works; it is, therefore, the former that have more chances of being found when the tradition is dead and is revealed only by the chance-discovery in excavations. Whatever it be, in the particular case of Mesopotamian medicine, we know it only by the collections meant for the use of the practitioner and not for that of the theoretician.