Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s2.t1.24

c6.s2.t1.24

2. The Principle of Homology. The osteological system of Suśruta is strictly based on the principle of homology, according to which the several organs of the right and left, and of the upper and lower halves of the body, correspond to each other. This comes out clearly in the Table in § 27, where the bones of the four extremities are succinctly enumerated on that principle. On the other hand, Ātreya-Charaka does not appear to have fully realized the homologies of the skeleton. The order in which he enumerates the bones of the four extremities (Nos. 8-15 in § 14), no doubt, indicates some degree of recognition of the principle of homology; and the manner in which he arrives at his total number of the vertebral column is intelligible only on the implication of the same principle (§§ 59, 61). But in the latter case, it is not applied by him with the thoroughness of Suśruta, and it fails him entirely with respect to the cranial and facial bones, which are treated by Suśruta alone on the homological principle (§§ 63, 66). The clearness with which that principle was recognized by Suśruta is shown by the subjoined statement (Original Text in § 96, cl. 1) in the sixth chapter of his Anatomical Section, which is devoted to an enumeration of the so-called ‘vital spots’ (marman) in the body.