A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c34.274

v2.c34.274

That these were conventional measures arbitrarily assumed goes without question, for, of course, the Hindus had no physical data for a mathematical calculation of these minute quantities. A Válágra (hair-tip, or finest filament of hair), for example, is taken to be 3.2⁻¹⁴ of an inch thick; i.e. less than one five-thousandth fraction of an inch in thickness; and a fibril of the networks of Dhamaní or Nádí (nerve) that supply the pores of the skin (papillæ? मुखानि रोमकृप-प्रतिवद्धानि, Susruta) was supposed to be about a thousandth part of the finest hair in thickness, or 1/15 of the *minimum visibile,* and therefore about 3·10⁻¹²⁻¹⁴ of an inch thick (cf. सूक्ष्मनाड़ी-प्रचारतः रोम्नः सहस्रभागेनतुल्यासु प्रचरति, Pañchadasí), but it is evident that these measures were arbitrarily fixed upon, instead of being arrived at by calculation or actual measurement. Indeed, Charaka expressly states that the number of S'irás and Dhamanís in the body (three million fifty-six thousand nine hundred) is only a conjectural estimate (अनिर्दिश्यमतः परं तर्क्यमेव—S'árírasthána, Chap. VII).