Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s2.t6.8

c6.s2.t6.8

4. From these considerations it appears very probable that the original and genuine recension of the list of Suśruta allotted seventeen bones to the breast and two to the palate, instead of eight and one—the numbers which we now find in the Traditional Recension. The difference between these two sets of numbers (17 + 2 = 19, and 8 + 1 = 9) is ten, that is to say, precisely the number we require to make good the shortage that results from the adjustments discussed in §§ 30-2. This coincidence tends to confirm the conclusion that the list of Suśruta, in its genuine form, must have given seventeen bones to the breast, and two bones to the palate.