Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c6.s4.20

c6.s4.20

Here the first two items are correct, being taken from Ātreya-Charaka (§ 4) and Suśruta (§ 35) respectively. But the numbers of the bones of the spine and the ribs, 54 and 27 respectively, are very strange. It almost looks as if they were due to a misreading, or false recollection, reversing the true numbers 45 and 72.² The former (i.e. 45) is the total of the bones of the spine in the system of Ātreya-Charaka (§ 4), while the latter (i.e. 72) is the total number of the ribs with their sockets and tubercles in both systems, of Ātreya as well as of Suśruta.