Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s3.t2.2

c7.s3.t2.2

2. The windpipe consists of four parts, the larynx, trachea, and two bronchi (Fig. 24). These four parts are enumerated by Suśruta as four distinct bones. On the other hand, Ātreya-Charaka counts the whole organ as a single bone. Strictly speaking, of course, the organ consists not of bone at all but of cartilage; but by the ancient Indian anatomists cartilage is regarded as a kind of tender, or immature (*taruṇa*) bone (§ 30, p. 80).