Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s2.t3.9

c7.s2.t3.9

5. Suśruta’s treatment of the bones of the breast marks an anatomical advance, inasmuch as he distinguishes the sternum from the adjacent costal cartilages, and the cartilaginous attachments of the eighth, ninth, and tenth ribs from the cartilage of the seventh rib. Incidentally, moreover, Suśruta’s count of seventeen bones of the breast has an important chronological bearing, inasmuch as the same count is found in the ritual Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa (see §§ 42, 62), the reputed author of which, Yājñavalkya, not being a medical expert himself, must have obtained his knowledge of the skeleton from the current surgical school of his time. Suśruta, therefore, must be placed earlier in date than the Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa.