A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c35.7

v2.c35.7

Observation (दर्शन—Váchaspati and Udayana):—The entire apparatus of scientific method proceeded on the basis of observed instances carefully analysed and sifted. This was the source of the physico-chemical theories and classifications, but in Anatomy, the Hindus went one step further; they practised dissection on dead bodies for purposes of demonstration. Ingenious directions are given, *e. g.*, the body must be first disembowelled and wrapped round with the kusa and other grasses, then kept immersed in still water for seven days, after which the medical student should proceed to remove the layers of the skin with a carefully prepared brush made of the fresh elastic fibres of green bamboos;—which will enable the tissues, vessels and ducts to be observed. *Post-mortem* operations as well as major operations in obstetric surgery (the extraction of the fœtus, etc.) were availed of for embryological observations (*e. g.*, it is stated as a result of observation that the rudiments of the head and the limbs begin to appear in the fœtus in the third month, and are developed in the fourth; the bones, ligaments, nails, hair, etc. becoming distinct in the sixth);—and also embryological theories, *e. g.*, the indication of sexual character in the second month by the shape of the fœtus, the shape of a round joint indicating the male sex, and an elongated shape as of a muscle the female sex (cf. Charaka, Sutrasthána, Chap. IV,—द्वितीये मासि घनः सम्पद्यते पिण्डं पेश्यर्बुदं वा। तत्र घनः पिण्डः पुरुषः स्त्री पेशी अर्बुदं नपुंसकम्। Chakrapáni notes : घनः कठिनः। पिण्डो ग्रन्थ्याकारः। पेशी दीर्घमांसपेश्याकारः। अर्बुदं वर्त्तलोन्नतम् loc. cit.). In Phonetics (as in the Prátisákhyas, circa 600 B. C.), in Descriptive and Analytical Grammar (as in Pánini), and in some important respects in Comparative Grammar (as in Chanda's and Hemachandra's Grammars of the Prákrita Dialects), the observation was precise, minute and thoroughly scientific. This was also the case in Materia Medica, and in Therapeutics, especially the symptomology of diseases. In Meteorology, the Hindus used the rain-guage in their weather forecasts for the year, made careful observations of the different kinds of clouds and other atmospheric phenomena (e. g., they give the heights of the clouds, the distance from which lightning is ordinarily visible, or the thunder is heard, the area of disturbance of different earth-quakes, the height to which the terrestrial atmosphere extends, etc., vide Varáhamihira, Srípati, and the authorities quoted by Utpala). In Astronomy, the observation was, generally speaking, very defective as in the determination of the solar and the planetary elements, and this was probably due to the lack of practical interest, but the determination of the lunar constants entering into the calculation of lunar periods.