The Classical Doctrine of Indian Medicine: Its Origins and its Greek Parallels c4.17

c4.17

Besides, the extremely rich dietetic indications of Ayurveda, necessarily based on observations over long periods, cannot but have interest for us, both from the practical view-point and for the study of the problems of nutrition. Systems of ancient medicine always attached a great deal of importance to regimen and to behaviour whether for the preservation of health or for the treatment of diseases. They often explained diseases as being due to a departure from regimen or to inadequate hygiene. In this regard their prescriptions were extremely thorough. The medicine of the nineteenth century, following its great discoveries and notably after the work of Pasteur concerning the pathogenic role of bacteria, has undermined many of their hypotheses. This has tended to relegate to the second rank the preoccupation concerning the regimen of diseases, exception however being made in the case of diseases of nutrition, as Diabetes. Alimentation and behaviour, being no longer considered as the essential causes of diseases, have lost a great deal of their importance in the eyes of doctors and are now considered among the favourable circumstances or among the accessory means of therapeutics. At present, however, a deeper study of the biological conditions, particularly the biochemical conditions of normal equilibria and of minor pathological perturbations is once again drawing attention to the effects of alimentation and to the mode of life, to the influence of climates, of seasons and to environmental conditions. For example, in regard to alimentation, observations have been made and experimental verifications are being made *in vitro*, concerning the influence of rice on the development and activity of pathogenic amoeba, which lose this activity when the proportion of rice in the contents of the digestive tube becomes too high. Therefore, in this respect the data of the Ayurveda deserve examination and verification. They can help many lines of research.