A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v1.c9.s4.6

v1.c9.s4.6

(2) Prof. H. H. Wilson in a *Note* appended to a paper by the Rev. W. Cureton entitled “A collection of such passages relative to India as may occur in Arabic writers’’ thus pithily summarises his own views :—“In medicine the evidence is more positive, and it is clear that the *Charaka*, the *Susruta*, the treatise called *Nidána* on diagnosis, and others on poisons, diseases of women and therapeutics, all familiar to Hindu Science, were translated and studied by the Arabs in the days of Flügel² states on the authority of *Kitāb-al-Fihrist* that *Susrud* (the Sanskrit name Susruta, thus corrupted into Arabic) was translated by Mankh, the Indian, who cured Harun ar-Raschid of a severe illness, and was appointed physician in charge of the Royal Hospital. We also learn that a work on the official plants of India was rendered into Arabic by the same Mankh. The other comprehensive Sanskrit treatise, the Charaka was also fully laid under contribution.