Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.s7.t4.26

c7.s7.t4.26

NOTE: The osteological terms mentioned in Nos. 3 and 4 have been much misunderstood in dictionaries and translations. Considered in the light of Indian anatomical doctrine it is not so difficult to interpret them correctly. Pṛṣṭi is a synonym of pṛṣṭha, and means back-bone or vertebra. Kīkasa denotes the transverse processes of the thoracic vertebrae. Jatru is a costal cartilage. Karūkara is another term for the transverse processes of the cervical and thoracic vertebrae. Kuntāpa does not refer to any gland in the abdomen, but to the transverse processes of the lumbar vertebrae. Udara does not mean the abdomen simply, but the lower or abdominal portion of the vertebral column, while anūka refers to the upper or thoracic portion of that column. The whole vertebral column is divided into three parts: grīvā, cervical, anūka, thoracic, and udara, lumbar. This is practically the same as our modern division. Vīrya, vital force, or strength, which is said to be the fifteenth neck-bone, obviously represents the median line of the cervical column, considered as forming a single bone, and imparting to the whole set of neck-bones its peculiar strength by which heavy loads are supported. The osteological principles implied in the use of these terms are explained in § 42, cl. 7 and 8, and in my article on ‘Anatomical Terms’ in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1907, pp. 1–18.