Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s3.t3.17

c6.s3.t3.17

Next, on the principle of homology, he multiplied this aggregate by four, obtaining forty as the grand aggregate of the bones of his four items in the four extremities. By a further, but erroneous, application of the same principle to Suśruta’s No. 5, heel (*pārṣṇi*), he obtained his four heels; and the correct application of it to Suśruta’s Nos. 6, 7, 8 (§ 27) gave him another set of sixteen bones. Totalling the sums so far obtained (i.e. 40 + 4 + 16 = 60), and adding the sixty phalanges (No. 1 in § 27), Vāgbhaṭa arrived at the grand total of one hundred and twenty for the bones of the four extremities.