Studies in the Medicine of Ancient India, Part I: Osteology, or the Bones of the Human Body c7.t2.4

c7.t2.4

of poison or of a protracted disease. Having removed all excrementitious matter from the entrails, the body should be wrapped in rush, or bast, or grass, or hemp, and placed in a cage. Having firmly secured the latter, in a hidden spot, in a river with no strong current, the body should be allowed to decompose. After an interval of seven days the thoroughly decomposed body should be taken out, and very slowly scrubbed with a whisk made of grass-roots, or hair, or bamboo, or bast. At the same time, every part of the body, great or small, external and internal, beginning with the skin, should be examined with the eye, one after the other, as it becomes disclosed in the course of the process of scrubbing.’ (Original Text in § 95.¹)